Lilly's Transformation(aka Crookshanks was actually Lilly Potter)
by sarenelsoria
Summary: Lilly spends twelve years as a cat, until Hermione buys her at the Magical e then goes to Hogwarts and convinces Severus that she's human and he figures out how to transfigure her back. While she was a cat, she was owned by a member of the Pureblood elite and learned their customs,as well as powerful magic. She kills Voldemort teaches magical etiquitte and falls in love
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

A mangy ginger cat slept in a cage, her tail waving back and forth in dreams, her claws kneading against the bottom of the cage. She slept lightly, prepared for a human hand to descend and try yet again to do something to her, which she had no desire for them to do. While she slept she dreamed, of her infant son who was no longer an infant and her husband who was no longer alive. Why Voldemort had saved her of all people was beyond her, but he had transfigured her into a cat and levitated her onto the street. There had been no explanation any words from the man who had just killed her James, her husband and the man she loved. Instead Lilly had found herself out on the street, she had gone house to house meowing at the top of her lungs, until finally an elderly witch had let her in and given her table scraps. She had no desire to be petted or be examined by the witch, or by anyone else when she left that house and was taken to another. She tried repeatedly to escape, to get back to her son, but each time she had been caught. She knew her son had somehow survived but she had no idea of how he had done it, she didn't know where her son was now for that matter. She couldn't help but picture the baby he had been, rather than the boy he had become, or possibly the young man he was now. Time had a way of slipping by, days melting together until Lilly had no idea of how much time had passed.

A bell on the door to the shop chimed and Lilly woke suddenly, glaring at the people who had disturbed her rest. She stared at the young teenager, who looked just like James and the rat in the cage who was obviously Pettigrew. She hissed and a young girl approached.

"Common garden rats like these don't live long I'm afraid, how long have you had him?"

"My older brother had him before me, so I'm not really sure." A red-haired boy said and looked sadly at the cage. Clearly he was the rat's owner and for some unknown reason was actually fond of the beast. Then again Pettigrew always had a way of ingratiating himself with others.

"My parents said I could get a pet for my birthday." The bushy haired girl said and stared at Lilly's cage. "Why is that cat in a cage?"

"Because he's a vicious beast, I'll give you him at a discount, if you take him off my hands." The store owner said and Lilly felt herself lifted by the girl.

All too soon the three parted and Lilly was given the run of a muggle house, not unlike the one she had grown up in. She was going to go to Hogwarts and she would see Harry again, there was no reason to escape and try to find him. She even allowed the child to pet her, the girl was much like Lilly herself had been at that age, fascinated by magic, intelligent and determined to do just as well as her Pureblood classmates. She was also very kind and Lilly couldn't help but think that her son had chosen wisely when he had become friends with the girl.

Finally Lilly was taken on the train, she tried repeatedly to get to the rat, but as she was in a carrier, each attempt was foiled. She gave up for now, knowing that she would soon be released from her carrier and Pettigrew couldn't hide in his cage forever surely. Eventually he would have to come out and then she would have a lovely snack, or perhaps she'd play with her supper a bit, before finishing him off. She purred at the thought of it.

"I don't like how your cat is looking at Scabbers."

"Crookshanks is a good boy and he isn't interested in your rat Ron." Hermione said and Lilly let out a piteous meow, scrabbling at the door to the cage. "I know you don't like it, but we will be at Hogwarts soon. You can get out of your cage then."

"You are going to let that creature out?" Ron demanded as ice filled the room, Lilly shuddered at the feel of it against her skin. She meowed when she saw James dying in front of her and Harry sharing his fate, as the Dark Lord laughed. Finally after what seemed an eternity Lilly's mind was again her own and she stared at a much older Remus Lupin. The years had not been kind to him, he looked more like fifty when he couldn't be more than forty.

He calmed the children and soon the train reached the station. Lilly was taken to where several other pets were to be transported to the student dorms. She hated the feel of the transportation magic and clawed the elf that let her out of her cage, before darting through the open door and trying to get up to the boy's dormitory. She stood outside the door the rat was behind, but the door was closed and she couldn't get to it. She glared angrily at the door, trying to reach the handle and turn it, but it was a knob and without hands it wouldn't turn properly. She glared again at the door, before turning around and going through the common room. Cats were allowed to roam freely in the halls, as they disposed of the mice and other vermin that the spells seeking out such things missed.

She walked through the familiar corridors, remembering her time at Hogwarts with fondness. She missed James horribly, but back during school they had been rivals and she had often attempted to stop his pranking of her best friend. She wondered as she often did what had happened to Severus, if he was married now and happy, that's what she hoped for him. He deserved happiness, even though he'd made a mistake in joining Voldemort, but he'd realized that and she had started talking to him again at meetings, when Voldemort had attacked. She was so lost in her musings that her paws led her to the Slytherin dormitories, she remembered waiting here for Severus some days, asking others to tell him she was outside and then they would go to the library, or sit outside by the lake and practice spells together. Severus had a sarcastic wit that made her laugh and he had been her best friend. That was until he fell in with the wrong crowd, started using spells that harmed others and called her a mudblood. It wasn't simply the word he had used, but the way he had used it, showed her that her friend was lost to her. That she couldn't try to stop him from going down the path he was, that he believed that she was inferior to him. It might have been in a moment of anger, but still she knew then that Severus was no longer the boy she had known. After that day, that boy was gone forever, when they had gotten on speaking terms again, after she had Harry, he had become a much sadder and much angrier young man.

Lilly had been naive and had no idea what he was really going through, she saw the marks of torture in him, but she didn't understand truly what he was risking by defecting. She knew he was putting his life in danger, but at first she didn't see how Voldemort was torturing him even though the Dark Lord believed that Severus served him. It wasn't until a few months after Severus joined the order that he had come back from a meeting, covered in blood. She had saved his life and had begged him not to go back, but he explained he had to in order to protect her. She had told him that she could protect herself and that she was about to go into hiding where no one could find her. He had wanted her Harry and even James to come with him, to stay at Spinner's End where he knew the wards were impenetrable, but Lilly and James didn't want to trust their lives to the wards, as Severus was a death eater, despite his defection.

She turned around then and was about to go back up to the Gryffindor dorms, when she saw the students heading to their dormitories. "Oh look its a cat, what's it doing here?" A first year asked trying to grab her.

"Leave it alone Roddington, it most likely has fleas."

"And no doubt a home." A silky voice said and Lilly stared up at Severus. "I will take it and see that it gets to its rightful owner in the morning." Severus said and Lilly felt him lift her into his arms. "If you scratch me, I know some ingredients that use Kneazle hair, that I've been getting around to using, but you won't scratch me will you?" He asked and Lilly would have laughed, had she been human, as it was she playfully kneaded his robes. "None of that, now young witches and wizards, you are scions of Slytherin House. There will always be those that assume the worst of you, but you will know the truth. That you are determined to become the best you can be. Protect one another in the corridors, don't instigate fights, if reports of you fighting come back to me you will serve detention. As the other houses dislike ours, it is imperative that you stick together and show a united front. That being said if you mess up in my class, or cause a disturbance, you will loose points and serve detention after that class ends. I refuse to allow bad behavior to go unpunished, however I do enjoy watching the Gryffindor students squirm and claim that I'm an unfair horrible greasy git. Find humor in the insults they throw at you and respond with ones of your own. Don't however instigate duels or directly attack other students, use your cunning and ambition wisely, as I'd rather not have to spend my evenings watching you scrub cauldrons. Any students younger than fifth year are expected to be in the dorms after dinner, fifth year and above can walk around the castle until curfew at nine." Severus said. "Study hard, do well and make your families proud." He then turned and with a swirl of his robes stalked out of the hallway.

"I did cut a rather impressive figure did I not?" Severus asked and Lilly meowed, she decided that she would attempt to write her name on paper for Severus. Severus would help her gain her true form and then she could be with Harry again. She smiled at the thought as she was let go in Severus' quarters. She dashed over to the inkwell and knocked it over before spelling out Lilly with the ink. Severus stared at her and the ink and she meowed extending one claw towards the ink. "It cannot be, I held Lilly's body." Lilly spelled out transfig..."Yes possibly the Dark Lord used Transfiguration to turn you into a cat, but what about the...He could have transfigured a facsimile of you as well. There are several spells that can be tried of course." He said and started to cast a series of spells, most of which did nothing to Lilly. It wasn't until seven in the morning that Severus finally found the one that reversed what turned out to be a curse, rather than a simple transfiguration.

Lilly sprawled naked in Severus' study, she stared at the drained wizard a moment, before Severus' eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he passed out from magical exhaustion She found some robes and put them on, she was skinny enough that they fit her, after years of not eating much in order to attempt her escape. Her limbs felt weak as well, all those years in a cage hadn't been kind to her. She quickly dressed and stared down at the now snoring Severus, uncertainly. She wasn't entirely sure what she should do, she couldn't just go into the breakfast hall and give her son the shock of his young life, not to mention the rest of the wizard community, but Severus also needed help and he would be in no condition to teach classes that morning. She frowned, uncertain of what to do, before she looked into the storage cabinet. Before getting pregnant with Harry she had been training to be a mediwitch and she found the potions she needed. Considering the severity of his magical overuse, Severus should be out for the rest of the day at least.

She found his wand and used it to levitate him, they had discovered as children that unlike most wands, theirs were compatible with one another and so she could easily use his. After she levitated him to the bed, she did another spell to undo the buttons on his robes and slid his over robes off of him. He was dressed in a simple black tee shirt and soft black velvet pants. She looked down at him a moment and realized he looked quite handsome, despite his slight paler and loud snoring. She administered the potions coxing him to drink them. She looked once more at Severus, before she left his quarters.

She decided that it might be best to meet Harry for the first time in private and if he was anything like James he'd most likely wait as long as possible before making it to the Great Hall. She walked up to the head table and the Professors and Headmaster stared at her in shock, the students stared at her in confusion. "I am Lilly Potter, I was transformed by He Who Must Not Be Named into the form of a cat. I do not know why he spared me, when so many others lost their lives to his attempt to take over the magical world. I have lived as a cat, from the time He Who Must Not Be Named came to my house and killed my husband and injured my child and died, until seven this morning when Severus Snape freed me from my furry little problem. Severus exhausted himself in doing so and I gave him potions to help him rejuvenate his magic, but I doubt he will wake today, as he spent all night last night trying to undo the transfiguration that was on me. In addition Ron Weasley has in his possession a rat that is in fact an animargius named Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew is responsible for giving away the location of our safe house. He was our secret keeper and not Sirius Black. I demand that he be brought to justice for his crimes against me and my family. I also would like to see my son Harry and would appreciate if I could do so in private. I know some years have passed, but I have lost track of time, while I was imprisoned in several witches and wizard's homes and a pet shop before being bought by Miss Hermione Granger."

"I'll get Harry to go to my study, of course such a reunion should be between mother and son." McGonagall said. "I am very happy that you are alright my dear." She said and Lilly smiled at her.

"Thank you." Lilly said.

"It's been nearly twelve years since Voldemort attacked your family." Dumbledore said and Lilly frowned.

"Twelve years?" She demanded and Dumbledore nodded, his eyes lacked their usual twinkle.

"Yes I am so sorry Lilly, if I had known, if I had any idea..."

"Its not your fault Dumbledore, its the fault of He Who Must Not Be Named." Lilly said and a moment later McGonagall came back with a cage and a sleeping rat.

"I thought it would be best if we transfigured him out of the sight of the students. Mr. Potter is waiting for you, he doesn't know why he's in my office, or why I took Mr. Weasley's rat." She said. "Mr. Weasley insisted upon accompanying him."

"Its good he'll have a friend there, they seemed close, when I saw them with Hermione." Lilly said and smiled, before walking to McGonagall's study.

"What's all this about Harry?" Ron was asking.

"I don't know, you know as much as I do, you heard McGonagall."

"Yeah I did, but what is she going to do with my rat?"

"She is going to turn Mr. Pettigrew into the authorities, Mr. Pettigrew was an animargius who was indirectly responsible for your father's death Harry." Lilly said and Harry stared at her, his eyes filling with tears.

"Mum?" He asked and Lilly opened her arms, as he ran into them. She felt her own eyes filling with tears, as Ron stared at them both.

"You look just like your father." Lilly said as Harry cried, she led them over to a couch and continued to hold him stroking his hair. "The last time I saw you as a human, you fit into my arms so easily. I was cursed into the form of a cat by He Who Must Not Be Named, I spent twelve years as a cat, but I'm back now Harry and we can be a family again." She said as she stroked his hair and he continued to cry. "Why don't we eat something and you can tell me all about yourself?" She asked after a few minutes and Harry nodded, he wiped at his face and Lilly smiled at him, as they sat down at the table. "You are of course welcome to join us Ron."

"I er better go, let you and Harry talk." Ron said and Lilly smiled.

"Would you rather it be just us, or have Ron here Harry?"

"Just us." Harry said and Lilly smiled.

"Some other time then Ron, I was good friends with your Mum, before we went into hiding, I remember when she was pregnant with you and I used to babysit your older brothers sometimes. That changed after the prophecy, but we still kept in touch."

"What prophecy?" Harry asked and Lilly frowned.

"You don't know about it? Well there was some sort of prophecy saying that you would be the one to defeat the Dark Lord. Obviously we had to go into hiding after the prophecy was known and we didn't have much contact with the wizarding world after that. Still you were a joy and James and I felt that it was enough to have one another and our baby, we didn't need anyone else, though friends still visited sometimes." Lilly said and smiled. "You were an adorable Harry and always getting into mischief, I think because James encouraged you more than anything. If he caught you with your hand in the cookie jar, or smearing your baby food on the walls, he'd just laugh. I had to be the one to punish you, because James felt that it was a bit of harmless fun." Lilly laughed remembering, as Ron left the room. "So how have you been?"

"Alright Mum, the Dursleys are..."

"Dumbledore sent you to live with my sister? How dare he? She hates magic, did they hurt you Harry?"

"What no, they didn't hurt me, ignored me for the most part." He said and Lilly hugged him.

"You won't ever be ignored again, now lets see about getting some food, I used to go to the kitchens, as I'd often skip meals studying, would you like to eat there?" Lilly asked and Harry nodded, they walked together to the kitchens and the house elves gave them food. Lilly dug into her plate of eggs and took ten pieces of bacon. "I love bacon haven't had it in ages." She said as she buttered toast and served herself large helpings of jam. She sighed at her first bite of toast. "I also love sweet things and no one ever gives the cat sweet food." She said continuing to eat. "Your professors were alright with you having the day off, so what do you enjoy doing, maybe we could do something together."

"I just want to talk with you." Harry said and Lilly smiled.

"We could go to Hogsmeade at least, James and I used to go to this funny little tea shop. Its sort of just their so students can date, but its got loads of hearts and pink decorations, its pretty funny. We used to joke about the decor in the shop, he took me there for our third date and we'd go there often."

"Where did he take you on your first date?" Harry asked eagerly and Lilly smiled.

"Flying, I love flying and so did James, though I wasn't on the team, because I'd often be studying, or reading in the library. I was a lot like your friend Hermione as a girl actually. Intelligent and very fond of books and learning about new spells. Still that didn't mean that I wouldn't borrow the school broom on weekends. Our first Christmas together, James got me a Cleansweep Five, so we could go flying together, without asking to use the broom shed." Lilly smiled at the memory. "Or sometimes I'd fly on the back of your father's broom. In winter I used to throw snow balls at him and insist that we make a snowman. I was looking forward to you being able to play in the snow before the attack."

"I like snow alright, though I like sun better and I love flying too, I'm a seeker on the Gryffindor team."

"That's wonderful Harry, maybe we could go for a ride on your broom together, I'd love to go flying again."

"That sounds fun." Harry said and smiled at Lilly, who gave him another hug.

"I know most boys your age don't like getting hugs from their mothers, but I can't help it." Lilly said and smiled as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Most of my life I'd give anything to have been hugged by you, I love it when you hug me mum." Harry said and Lilly smiled tousling his hair.

"You should try some product, James got it to be more manageable by rubbing a bit of slick easy's through his hair before brushing it. We could go to Hogsmeade and get you some. Though I also liked James' messy hair and I loved running my fingers through it when he didn't have the product in." She said.

"You mean it won't be as wild if I use product?" Harry asked and Lilly nodded.

"Well it never lay exactly strait, but it was more manageable with the product. I just realized I need to give proof of life to Gringotts before anything else. They should be alright with me taking you with me, but I'll double check to be safe." Lilly said and took out Severus' wand. "Familiatis Dumbledore." Lilly said and took Harry's hand, as she walked towards Dumbledore. The Familiatis spell used the relationship that one had with the target of a spell to act as a guide to where that person was. It was very handy when someone you cared about was either missing, or you simply didn't know currently where they were. She had found it in an ancient book of spells, but she hadn't shared it with anyone, as she didn't want it getting out to her enemies and James wasn't exactly discrete. Luckily she was able to find him on his way to his office. "Dumbledore, I need to set things up with Gringotts and get a wand, as well as some clothes, can I take Harry with me?"

"Of course dear." Dumbledore said and Lilly smiled. "You can even borrow my floo powder though it might be best to go through with young Harry, he has James' gift for and liking of floos according to the Weasley's." Lilly laughed at the memory of James bent double over their fireplace, trying not to throw up, as he coughed out soot.

"Thank you that would be great." Lilly said and smiled at Dumbledore, before they walked together through the floo. She went to Gringotts and walked up to a goblin. "I am Lilly Potter Nee Evans, I am here to prove that I am still alive and to gain access to my accounts."

"You realize what will happen if you are not in fact Lilly Potter Nee Evans." The Goblin said and Lilly nodded.

"I know what will happen and I know the risk, which is no risk to me as I am telling the truth." Lilly said and the Goblin nodded.

"Hand please." The goblin said and Lilly extended her hand, a moment later the goblin took out a pin and pricked Lilly's finger. The blood fell from her finger into a bowl, which immediately glowed with a green light. "You are indeed Lilly Potter Nee Evans, here is you key." The goblin said and produced a key with a flourish. "Would you like to do some banking today?"

"I would like to make a withdrawal from my account." Lilly replied and the goblin nodded, they walked together to a cart and then were taken deep down into Gringotts.

"This isn't where my account is." Harry frowned. "Where are we going?"

"To the Potter vaults, your account was set up for you in trust, when you were a baby, with enough money to see to your needs and any desire you might have, until age eighteen. James insisted upon the amount, though I thought it was a bit much for a child. At any rate you should have enough to last quite a while. Inform me when you need more gold and I'll transfer the funds from the main account, but use your money wisely Harry." Lilly said and Harry nodded. "Now is there anything you need, school supplies or clothes, perhaps some wizard's wear for around Gryffindor tower?"

"I could use some new clothes."

"Well as I have to get an entire wardrobe, Madam Malkin will be seeing to us both, then I'm going to get a expanding trunk, would you like one as well, I know how noisy it can be in the dorms, not the best place to talk with friends, or study."

"What is an expanding trunk?" Harry asked.

"Trunks that have spells on them that make them bigger on the inside. Some more elaborate ones can have whole rooms in them, in fact there might already be a trunk or two in storage, though you'll have to wait for me to look inside. I doubt that James' family left anything dangerous, but it never hurt to look." Lilly said and smiled as the door came to a stop and she pulled out her key, she opened the door and stared at the portrait on the wall. James stared back at her in shock.

"Lilly?" James asked and grinned. "You made it out then, I was wondering why your portrait never woke up." He nodded his head to an inactive portrait. "I'm glad you made it."

"You got portraits painted of us, without asking my permission?"

"I knew that one or both of us might not survive the war and if we didn't survive and Harry did, I wanted to leave something behind for him." James said and Lilly smiled going next to his frame, he looked exactly as he had when she'd seen him last. Same twinkling hazel eyes and mischievous smile. "You've gotten so big Harry, you look like you're a chip off the old block." He said and puffed out his chest slightly, Lilly laughed and ruffled Harry's hair. "Where are the expanding trunks James and which ones should we take?" Lilly asked and James smiled.

"The purple one was my mothers, I had it refurbished for you and was going to give it to you as a Christmas Present, give Harry the blue one, it was mine when I went to Hogwarts." James said and Lilly nodded taking out the trunk.

"Should I take your portrait down with me?" Lilly asked and James shook his head.

"I hung portraits in both trunks just in case, you both survived I had planned on sending Harry's to his vault, but I didn't get to it in time." James said and shrugged. "So is life, or death or whatever you prefer to call this universe, that works in such mysterious ways." He said and Lilly laughed.

"Flippant as ever James."

"Don't you know it, after all I never grew old, so why should I act it." James said and Lilly laughed again. "Take the trunks and the gold and be happy, both of you. Lilly we never talked about what might happen while I was alive, but just to be clear, if you find someone other than my handsome mug, I want you to be happy. That's all I ever wanted for both of you, to make you happy and fill your lives with jokes and laughter, as you filled mine." James said and Lilly felt tears coming to her eyes.

"I love you James."

"And I love you Lilly flower." James said. "Now you should get on with it, we can talk after you've finished your shopping." He said and Lilly smiled.

"We will talk with you soon."

"Love you Dad." Harry managed to say and Lilly put an arm around him.

"Sneaky blighter decided to pull one last prank." Lilly said and both Harry and James laughed. Lilly took a bag and enough galleons to get everything they needed before going out of the vaults with Harry.

"He was funnier than I thought." Harry said and Lilly smiled.

"Your dad was a prankster through and through, while I was more scholarly as a teenager. He still loved pranks but he mellowed slightly when we had you, though he was always coming up with spells to make you laugh. We both were actually, sometimes we'd blow multicolored bubbles, or do some illusionary magic, and you loved it all and would let out these delighted baby shrieks." Lilly smiled at the memory as the cart took them back to the surface. "You were such a happy baby, you hardly ever cried and you were so very cute, though I might be a bit biased." She said finally and Harry smiled at her.

"Tell me more about Dad, what sort of pranks did he pull on you, how did he try to amuse me when I was a baby."

"Well there was the time that I arrived home to find the bathroom coated in bright blue bubbles and you and James were both bright blue as well. He'd been trying to add some color to the bubble bath, but it stuck to your skin and his." Lilly laughed at the memory. "He was so sheepish about handing me a bright blue baby, but you laughed and grabbed my hair and I couldn't help laughing." Lilly smiled at the memory, as they made their way to the wand shop. She bought a wand there, before continuing on to Madam Malkin's. "Would you rather get muggle things?"

"I already have some muggle clothing." Harry said and Lilly nodded, they entered the shop together and Lilly smiled at Harry, as they were both fitted for robes, glad that they didn't have to undress. She paid for both their clothing, getting a new wardrobe for both of them.

"I'm so glad that you are alright dear, I should have these ready in a hour or two, there's not much of a back log, now that Hogwarts is in session." She said and Lilly smiled.

"Thank you, would you mind if I looked at some dresses Harry?" Lilly asked and Harry shook his head, she found several cute ones and requested that they be made at knee length, rather than the full skirts that were displayed.

"That would look lovely, with your skin town." Madam Malkin said and Lilly smiled.

"Thank you, this is for the dresses, now we'd better leave before Harry here dies of boredom." Lilly said and Harry smiled at her.

"I really don't mind Mum." Harry said and Lilly tousled his hair.

"I know you don't, but we still have to get you some slick easy's and we should also go to a magical lens crafter, those glasses are broken."

"Thanks Mum." Harry said and looked slightly embarrassed.

"After that we can go to Fortescues for lunch, I love their sandwiches and ice cream."

"Yeah I've had some, its really good." Harry said and Lilly smiled. They walked together to the lens crafters and Lilly waited while Harry was seen to, before they walked to a hair care store. Lilly got several bottles of shampoo for herself and some mint shampoo for Harry, as well as the slick easy's.

"Your father was fond of mint shampoo, I always liked the way he smelled. Manly and earthy, as well as fresh, do you like mint Harry?"

"I like it well enough." Harry said and Lilly smiled, handing him both the shampoo and slick easy's. "Now just take a small dab of this and apply it to your hair after washing, too much and it will look greasy." Lilly advised and Harry nodded.

"Thank you." Harry said and Lilly smiled.

"Of course Harry, now lets get you some food, then I have a cat to buy for your friend."

"You're getting Hermione a cat?"

"Of course if it wasn't for her, who knows how long I would have been trapped as a cat. We'll find her something sweet and intelligent just like her." Lilly said and Harry grinned.

"Thanks Mum." He said and they walked together to Fortescues. They ordered their sandwiches, Lilly got two kinds, a bacon club sandwich and a beef dip, as well as a bowl of clam chowder.

"I'm most likely not going to finish all this, but after years of eating cat food, I want to eat everything I couldn't." Lilly said and Harry nodded. "Help yourself after you finish your sandwich if you want any of mine, I know what thirteen year old boys are like, I lived with them. Bottomless pits more than anything else when it comes to food." She said and Harry laughed.

"My friend Ron is like that and I eat a fair amount too."

"James was like that, he ate just about everything he could get his hands on and never gained a pound. Oh how I envied him for it when we were teenagers." Lilly said and Harry laughed again. Lilly smiled when the food came and dug into it hungrily, it was all as good as she remembered, when she came up for air she realized she'd eaten two thirds of the food she had ordered and Harry was staring at her slightly wide eyed, she licked the soup from around her mouth and licked her hand without thinking about it, cleaning her face. She frowned and put her hand down and reached for her napkin instead. "Habit, I'll soon remember how to act more human, but I was a cat for twelve years and old habits die hard." She said and Harry smiled. "Would you like some."

"Go ahead and finish it, I'm fine and you seem hungry." Harry said and Lilly nodded, diving back into the food and finishing it off. She then ordered four scoops of ice cream for both of them, getting all chocolate for herself, as well as the sherbet Harry wanted. "Merlin I missed chocolate, its bad for cats and so I never could have any." Lilly said savoring her ice cream. "Mmm, so good." She said and blushed slightly as Harry blushed as well, she continued to savor her ice cream and didn't realize she was purring as she ate, or as close human vocal cords could get to a purr. She paid the bill and they walked together to the pet store.

 _Wanna play, I wanna play, you wanna play?_ A kitten meowed.

 _Shut up all you want to do is play, I'm sleepy and I can't sleep while your meowing in my ear._ Another kitten protested and Lilly walked over to the cage, looking at the Kneazle kittens. there were two ginger kittens who both were asleep, as well as two that were awake.

 _Sleeping is boring want to play!_

 _I'm sleepy you don't have anything but fur between your_ ears. The kitten said and Lilly laughed, she liked the kitten, it had spunk and was funny. She reached out a hand to the cage and the kitten approached sniffing her. _Red coated human lady, with her kit, she smells nice, come on brother smell her. They like it when we smell them and she might give us pets._ The kitten said and Lilly laughed, caressing the face of the small kitten.

 _What's happening, who's come?_ One of the sleeping kittens woke up and stared at Lilly. _She's pretty for a human, maybe she'll take us out of the cage and we can go find brother._

 _He's been gone for a week now, where are we going to find him?_ The other kitten asked and Lilly smiled.

 _He lives with another human now, soon you will all go to different humans and be able to run and play freely._

 _Want to stay with my brothers and sisters, even though he's a fluff for brains. How can you talk like us?_

 _I was a cat for years, before I was able to transform into my human form. How about this, you can live most of the year with your brothers and sisters, but for a few months, you'll be with your new owners only and they will take good care of you and play with you._

 _You seem nice and you give good scratches, I trust her, we go with her yes?_

 _Yes._ The kittens answered and Lilly smiled she'd keep two of the cats and give two to Ron and Hermione, to replace the pets they had both lost, she doubted that Molly or the Grangers would mind much. She got enough food for the kittens, a well as some toys for them to play with and beds and bowls for them to eat out of, as well as two litter boxes. "I thought you might like a kitten Harry."

"We're only allowed one pet and I have an owl." Harry said and Lilly smiled.

"Well then I'll take two kittens and you can pick one to "visit" you." Lilly said and Harry laughed.

"You aren't very much like Hermione, she loves rules."

"Yes well, I learned with time that some rules are meant to be bent a bit, it's more fun that way." Lilly said and paid for the kittens, they were small enough to fit into just one cat carrier. "Now should we surprise your friends?"

"They'll both be really excited, I am, and I like cats well enough." Harry said and Lilly smiled, they traveled by floo to the village, Lilly casting sleeping spells on the kittens before they went through, to stop them from getting scared. She smiled as they walked back to the castle together.

"You can use the spell I used on Dumbledore on your friend Ron to find him, I'm already quite fond of Hermione so I should be able to track her down." Lilly said and used the tracking spell. They walked together to the library. Lilly smiled and set the cat carrier down on the table Hermione was reading at. "Hello dear." Lilly said and Hermione looked up from her book and smiled at Lilly.

"Hello Mrs. Potter, you got some kittens?" Hermione asked and Lilly nodded.

"I thought that you may like to provide a home for one of them."

"I'd love to!" Hermione said and threw her arms around Lilly. "Thank you Mrs. Potter."

"Of course dear, they are all rather intelligent, I think there are two girls and two boys." Lilly said and opened the cage looking at the kittens and nodding. "Would you rather have a girl or a boy? One's more playful than the rest, so I thought I might give that one to Ron."

"You're giving a kitten to Ron too?"

"I was responsible for his rat being taken into custody." Lilly said and smiled at Hermione. "They won't wake up until I cancel the spell I put them under."

"They are all so cute, which one do you like?" Hermione asked and Lilly handed her a kitten.

"I didn't ask them their names, but they should respond to what you name them."

"Cats have names?"

"Of course they do, most are simple like One Who Feather Dances, or Sharp Claw Foot's Bane that was a particularly nasty specimen." Lilly said and Hermione laughed.

"I'd like to hear their names first." Hermione said and Lilly nodded, she attached leashes to the kittens and woke them.

 _What are your names kits?_

 _I am One Who Plays Tricks, he is One Who Tumbles Among Clouds, he is One Who Dances Upon The Wind, she is One who Has Dancing Thoughts._

 _Great names all, I was once She Who Studies Her Reflection._

Lilly smiled at the kittens. "She is One Who Plays Tricks which means she likes mischief, so she might scratch at your things, or cause other mayhem. This is One Who Tumbles Among Clouds He is a is a good climber and loves it, this one is _One Who Dances Upon The Wind_ likes to play and the last one is One who Has Dancing Thoughts, which means she's intelligent. "

"Could I have the last one please?" Hermione asked and Lilly nodded, handing her the kitten and smiling as Hermione stroked its fur. "Aren't you a nice kitty we'll get on well." She said and Lilly smiled.

"What about you Harry?" Lilly asked.

"I'll take the one that likes to climb, I was thinking of naming him Everest."

"That's a good name." Lilly said and smiled telling the kitten what his name was and what it meant.

 _I'm Everest I have a human name now and you don't_ The kitten teased and Lilly laughed, she scooped up One Who Plays Tricks and asked if she would like to be called Loki, she let out a loud meow of agreement and purred. She then explained to One Who Has Dancing thoughts that Hermione would rather wait to name her.

 _What about me?_

 _I know a boy that will love and take god care of you._ Lilly assured the kitten and it nodded.

"Wow did you see that Harry?"

"Kneazle are highly intelligent animals, they understand most of what they are saying, but like any creature they prefer to be spoken to in their own tongue."

"Its amazing how you know how to speak to cats." Hermione said.

"Not really, I had to learn, after being transfigured for so long and it took a very long time, but I learned eventually." Lilly said and Hermione nodded. Lilly put Loki and her brother on her shoulders. "Now lets go find Ron."

"He might be outside now." Hermione said and Harry took out his wand and cast the spell. He grinned when it worked and Lilly beamed at her son.

"That was very good Harry, looks like he's in Gryffindor tower." Lilly said and together they walked to Gryffindor tower, Lilly carrying the cat carrier and her trunk, as Harry carried his kitten and his trunk. They found Ron sitting on his bed somewhat dejectedly.

"Hello Mate." Ron said and Lilly smiled. "I can't believe that I had a murder sleeping right next to me for all those years." Ron said and shook his head.

"Well would another pet cheer you up, one who is decidedly a Kneazle and never was or will be human?" Lilly asked and the boy's gaze shot up to her and the kittens. "I got you and Harry enough food to last several months at least, would you like a kitten, this one I thought you might like, he loves playing." Lilly said and Ron grinned

"I'll call him Chudley after the Cannons, he's orange like them." Ron said and Lilly smiled handing Ron the kitten and taking out the pet supplies. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the kittens, though after some time Hermione got out a book and started to read to her's as she petted it.

 _Like human words, like pets, happy._ Hermione's kitten said and Lilly smiled.

"She loves having you reading to her and petting her." Lilly said and Hermione grinned.

"How about Libra then? Libre is Latin for book and its an astrological sign as well as being a constellation."

"That sounds like a fine name Hermione." Lilly said and smiled at the girl. "Harry as we've already done our shopping, I'm going to check on Severus in the hospital wing."

"You know Professor Snape?" Harry asked shocked and Lilly nodded.

"He was a childhood friend, we grew apart as teenagers though. He's the reason I'm human again instead of furry. He magically exhausted himself for my sake and so it's only right that I go check on him." Lilly said and Harry frowned.

"Snape is horrible, all he ever does is berate me in class and claim I'm just like Dad." Harry said and Lilly frowned.

"Seems like I will need to have a talk with Severus about that. He didn't like James in school but that's no excuse for being mean to you Harry, if anyone is mean to you, you come tell me."

"Mum I can fight my own battles, I don't need you to have a talk with Snape, or anyone else." Harry said.

"Has anyone else been bullying my boy?" Lilly demanded her wand coming to her hand and Harry stared wide eyed at his mother in shocked surprise.

"I get as good as I get Mum." Harry protested.

"Who's been bullying you?" Lilly demanded.

"I'm not being bullied, though we have cast curses at one another."

"Give me their name and I'll give them an earful."

"Mum Draco Malfoy is my age, please don't go giving classmates lectures or anything else." Harry said and Lilly frowned

"Lucius was a nasty piece of work in school, he was several years above me, but made it very clear of what he thought of me and my blood status." Lilly said and Harry's fist tightened. "Has Draco been bullying Hermione?" Lilly asked and Harry nodded. "After we go see your professor for a bit, I'll be going to the library." Lilly said and Harry groaned.

"Can't we go flying Mum, please?" Harry asked and Lilly laughed, before ruffling Harry's hair.

"Maybe tomorrow, I'd read most of the books on the subject I'll be researching and was just about done with my research when I graduated and had to drop it in favor of mediwitch training and then you came into my life." Lilly said and smiled at Harry, who grinned back at her.

"Whatever you want to do Mum, if it's been bothering you for this long, you should do it. I can read my spell books while you're in the library." Harry said and Lilly smiled, together they walked to the hospital wing.

"If you don't stop plying me with potions and let me go this instant, I will be very cross Madam!"

"Oh hush you, you don't want to miss another day of teaching now do you?" Madam Pomphrey demanded and Lilly sighed.

"Severus never was a very good patient, I remember he never would stay any longer than was completely necessary." Lilly said.

"Lilly!" Severus said and threw his arms around her, kissing her on the lips. "I didn't know it would work, but it did and you're alright! Your alive, I didn't kill the only person I ever loved."

"He's slightly loopy thanks to the healing potions..."

"Why did you have to go and marry Potter, we could have been good together Lilly." Severus said and swayed in Lilly's arms, before giggling. "I'm so happy you are alright."

"Yes Sev, I'm fine." Lilly said and frowned at the man she was supporting, either Severus just believed himself to be in love with her because of the potion, or he had truly loved her since they both were teens. Severus was a very complicated man, but Lilly wanted so badly to have a man care about her again. She would always love James, but that didn't mean she would never try to be with anyone ever again, now that he was gone. Still Harry came first, the most important person in Lilly's life was her son. She'd have to talk to Severus once he was no longer flying high from the magical overdose and healing potions. "Now why don't we have a nice lie down, I'll stroke your hair like I did when we were younger." Lilly offered and Severus gave her a slightly lopsided grin as Lilly got him into his hospital bed and sat with his head in her lap. "Now I'll only do this if you stay still."

"Won't move." Severus promised and looked at Lilly with adoration in his slightly glassy eyes. Lilly smiled softly and stroked her fingers through his hair, he sighed against the touch of her hand and smiled softly looking like the boy she had known, who had been her best friend. Within moments he was snoring loudly through his nose. Lilly laughed remembering how she'd giggled when Severus had snuck into her house to stay the night when she had been nine. He was gone before dawn the next morning and had spent many nights in her room before they had gone off to school. There were now wrinkles around his mouth, from frown lines and he had aged and changed from that innocent boy she had known, but there were still traces of her friend in his face. She smiled softly, before moving herself out from underneath him.

"Thank you dear, he never rests when he needs to and if he had left against my advice he most likely would have wound up back here again. Some of the potions he's taking don't allow for sleeping potions, so I'm very glad that you came along and managed to get him to lie down and sleep some more."

"Severus always pushes himself too hard, I learned long ago that I would have to convince him to take breaks and let himself rest." Lilly said and shook her head.

"What about you dear, weren't you up most of the night as well?"

"Yes but there's so much to do and I'm so excited about being human again that I want to do it all, who has time for sleep when there's a whole world of things to do." Lilly said and smiled at Harry, before she walked to the library. She got out the books from the section she had been looking in and skimmed through five before she finally found what she was looking for. "Ancesstorius Magicum Revelium." Lilly said pointing her wand at herself. She stared at the names as they appeared with birth and death dates underneath them. The most recant names were those of the Malfoy and Weasley's on one side, with just the last name of some wizard named Gaunt on the other, all had died over a hundred years ago. She was related to three of the four founders of Hogwarts but there were other names she recognized as well but mostly they were unknown to her, the names spanned back about three thousand years or so. The most ancient of all was the name Hera and other names from the Greek pantheon, though Hera seemed to pass from mother to daughter for several hundred years, before the name changed to something else entirely. She wondered why this spell wasn't more commonly used and smiled at Harry who seemed just as shocked as she was.

"I'm related to Voldemort?" Harry asked and Lilly frowned.

"Not just him Harry, others as well, this spell only shows direct descendants, there's also a spell that just shows family who's currently alive but you have to be at least fourth cousins for the relationship to be recognized. At any rate lets go to dinner." Lilly said and walked with Harry to the Great Hall. "Muggle born and Pureblood students come over to me ." Lilly said and everyone stared at Lilly in shock. "That is of course if you want to know your magical ancestry, and the truth to magical inheritance, if you don't that's alright as well." Lilly said and cast the spell and several people stared in shock as the names were revealed. At once a crowd of Gryffindor surrounded her and she grinned at the students as she cast the spell on them. "There you see, this proves once and for all that muggleborns didn't steal their magic from anyone, you lot just are so desperate to breed with other wizards that you wind up breeding the magic right out of you. Or that's what I think anyway, considering how most of the powerful wizards I know are at least a half-blood. Including He Who Must Not Be Named. Those that look down on Muggle Borns and consider them to be better are wrong, yes you know more magic at first and you've have had longer to learn it, but Hermione and I show that with a bit of hard work you can easily catch up. As for the cultural and societal norms and social graces, how can one learn anything if they are never taught? Find another thing to pick on my son for Malfoy, because you can see his lineage is just as ancient and powerful as yours and you do not want to piss me off."

Everyone stared at her and she smiled, before she yawned and filled her plate with food. "Dumbledore I'd like to stay with Harry, might I become the Finishing Instructor?"

"What are your qualifications?"

"I was Madam Sinclair Parkinson's cat for the last five years of her life, during that time I learned much about proper educate for both young boys and girls as well as reading many informative books on the subject and I would like to share that knowledge with those that do not already know the social graces." Lilly said and did a semi formal curtsy demurely rotating her head a quarter of an inch, which was both a gesture of respect and a way to ask to enter a contract.

"Madam Sinclair Parkinson's school was one of the premier schools for magical educate, I see no issue with you teaching these lessons, you may do so in the old ballroom, as long as you allow all students to join."

"Of course, we should focus it by year and gender, two days a week would be preferable to me."

"It would have to be an elective, I can only make changes to the school curriculum in that manner."

'What about those that want to take classes but already know most of what you will teach?" Hermione asked and Lilly smiled at her. "I know what its like to be stuck in classes when I already know how to do the spells..."

"Then I suppose an aptitude test can be given and those that score higher will be placed in a more advanced class, if that is acceptable for you Dumbledore?"

"Of course it is, you can sign a contract at a later date, for now you should focus on making the test and spending time with your son."

"Thank you Dumbledore." Lilly said and smiled. "Could I trouble someone for a note taking quill and some parchment?" She asked and a student from the Ravenclaw table handed theirs to her. Lily smiled and spoke out the questions for the test at the teacher's table, she decided that five hundred questions should be enough to determine everyone's skill level. She finished the test by the end of dinner and smiled again at the Ravenclaw student. "Thank you for the use of your supplies, could I trouble everyone that wishes to take this exam to give me thirty sheets of parchment?"

"The school of course will reimburse you and you may start teaching tomorrow, would you be alright in making four levels of difficulty?"

"I'd be fine with that and a master class in addition to the other four levels." Lilly said and several of the Pureblood students sat up straighter in their seats. "Don't expect this test to be easy." Lilly warned, before she copied out the exam and watched as the students filled it out. "It would be in your best interest not to copy off other's papers, as you will not receive instruction in certain areas which you may very well need to receive instruction." Lilly said and watched as everyone took the test, she then used a quick grading method and ordering spell after the grading spell, to order the students names by class. "One student has made it into my master class this year, do you believe yourself able to learn from me Miss Bradlegrace?"

"I would not have taken the test if I was not willing to try." Miss. Bradlegrace said and Lilly smiled at her.

"Perhaps you might demonstrate for the others from time to time, if that might be allowable?" Lilly asked and the other Professors nodded.

"Miss Bradlegrace is a credit to Ravenclaw house, it would not hurt her to miss the occasional lesson." Professor Flitwick said.

"Now for the fourth level students when I call out your name collect your exam." Lilly said. "All answers are final I'm afraid, but if you can prove yourself capable to advance to another of my classes, you may do so." Lilly said. "I believe it would be best if we did this by ranking, Miss Bradlegrace alone will be in the Primer class, the students in the secondary class are as follows..." Lilly continued till she got to the end of the secondary class. "Now for the tertiary class the students in that class are as follows..." Lilly finished listing off the names.

"How dare you put me in the quaternary class my father will hear of this! _"_

"Mr. Malfoy there are severe gaps in your education, which do not warrant you making it past the quaternary class. While your knowledge was across the board in the things you did know, there were a great deal of gaps as well. There is no shame in being in the quaternary class, the way I will be teaching it will be as if you were taking a third year summer class with Mrs. Parkinson, I am simply teaching what I myself was taught by paying attention in other's lessons. If you wish to see your exam you may of course do so, or as I said if you wish to gain a higher level, you can simply learn more information, I will be offering the same test again every two months, for the rest of the school year."

"Its unfair!"

"Life is seldom fair Mr. Malfoy, I am surprised that you do not realize how unfair certain aspects of life can be at your age. You should not talk back to me, because I am your teacher and I will not tolerate such behavior in my lessons. You will address me as either Madam Potter, or Professor Potter, whatever you prefer, but you will give me the respect that I as your teacher deserve, or you will not be enrolled in my classes, do I make myself clear."

"Yes Madam Potter." Draco said and nodded his head in deference.

"I will now recite the members of the quaternary class, they are as follows..." Lilly listed off the names and when she got to Hermione's there was an uproar. "SILENCE! The scoring and positioning of these classes are deserved, Miss Granger answered two hundred and fifty of the questions correctly, which more than allows her entrance into my quaternary class. I will not show any of you the results, as that will be an excuse to embarrass and malign your classmates but I assure you that Miss Granger has just as much right to be in the class she is in, as any other student." Lilly stated and saw Hermione blushing. "Some students will score higher than others, while others will score lower. This is not even the first day, so the rankings will change and along with the rankings, your classes. Do poorly and you will be sent down a class, excel and you will make it to the more advanced classes." Lilly said and smiled. "I believe that a wizard once said that there is no good and no evil, there is simply knowledge and those strong enough to take it."

"How do you know that?" Draco demanded and Lilly smiled.

"Mr. Malfoy, do you truly believe that I could live in a place for five years and never learn anything while there? I might have been trapped in the form of a cat, but that does not mean that I am incompetent. With magic it is true that by its very nature, knowledge is power, the more knowledge you have, the better you can draw on your core, the better you can draw on your core, the better you can create spells and enchantments. However there is one point at which that wizard and I disagree, there is a difference between good and evil. Every day we have the choice between doing something good, or doing something bad, those choices shape our future and who we become. Not magic, which is an elemental force, but instead who we are and what we do with that power. Then again I was a white witch before my transformation into a cat and I would consider myself a Grey practitioner now, in accordance with the spells I am willing to use. There is no spell that I am not willing to use in the defense of myself, or my child and you may inform your parents of that. You are all children and children shouldn't be forced into wars that they don't understand."

"But Mom what about if Voldemort returns, he nearly has twice."

"Prophesies by their very nature are vague, my husband was killed over such a prophesy and my child permanently scarred, another boy lost his parents to madness, but that does not mean that the prophesy is straight forward at all. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...Pretty much only Voldemort a very powerful wizard, who is the only one with the inclination and ability to kill my son is the only one that can kill my son. Similarly my son who was doing accidental magic at the age of eight months, is the only one who has the ability to kill Voldemort. Living and surviving are two different things, you can survive without living, but you can't live without surviving. Harry has some sort of power that Voldemort doesn't know about and which I certainly won't be revealing although I have my beliefs about it. Suffice it to say that if Voldemort attempted to kill my son, he would only be killing his own Horcrunx, something I don't believe to be in his best interest."

"What's a Horcrunx?" Hermione asked.

"Its a way to ensure you cannot be killed by magical means, at the expense of your soul and all too often your sanity. It requires a ritual and the murder of another person that is central to your life in some way to create. I do not know more than that and the fact that my son has a piece of Voldemort's soul in his scar."

"How do I get it out?" Harry demanded.

"You don't Harry, it's protecting you." Lilly said and smiled at the students. "I will finish calling out the names of the fourth class, I hardly think it necessary to call out the names of the fifth class, you will show up at the proper time if you are interested in taking my course." Lilly said and yawned. "If you will excuse me?"

"Of course." Dumbledore said and Lilly smiled, she walked to Hogsmeade and then used a locating spell she'd picked up in the Parkinson library. She then proceeded to systematically destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, relying on energy potions to assist her flagging reserves, she managed to locate all of them except the cup, which was in the Gringotts account of Bellatrix Lestrange. She then returned to Hogwarts and curled up on the couch in the library, falling asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Lily woke as the sun filtered into the library she yawned and stretched, falling off the couch and onto the floor with a yelp. It took a moment for her sleep-muddled brain to clear enough to remember that she had two legs instead of four. She frowned realizing that she still had to take something from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, she then remembered a rule that was handy for her to use. Those who were the head of a family house had access to those that were of that house. The current head of house Black was Sirius Black. Lily cast the locator charm at once and disapparated to his location. Sirius stared at her in shock, he was in dog form, he looked emaciated and Lily smiled at him. "Sirius you will be a free man soon, I found Pettigrew and I'll testify on your behalf, but I need your help." Lily said and she watched as Sirius transformed.

"Whatever you need Lily." Sirius said and Lily smiled.

"Thank you Sirius." Lily said and hugged him. "We need to access your cousin Bellatrix's vault and destroy everything inside." Sirius grinned.

"Sounds like fun, when do we leave?"

"Now would be preferable I have lessons to teach." Lily said and Sirius laughed, they disapparated to Gringotts together and Sirius smiled charmingly at one of the goblins.

"I by right of family ties and sworn fealty to house Black, do ask for the vault of one Bellatrix Lestrange Nee Black." Sirius said and the goblin nodded.

"What has she done, to have her possessions taken from her?"

"She has dishonored our house, it is one thing to be on the opposite sides of a war, quite another to curse a child's parents and take them from him."

"That is reason enough to cease all possessions belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange Nee Black, you will be taken to the vaults at once."

"Thank you." Sirius said and together they rode down into a deep tunnel, when they finally reached the vault, Lily smiled, she took out her wand as the goblin opened it and cast fiendfire over the entire contents of the vault.

"Transfer the money to my account, give the cursed items to the ministry, let it be known that Bellatrix Lestrange no longer is free to carry the legacy of House Black." Sirius stated and the goblin nodded. Together they left the vault and Sirius stared at the aurors and reporters waiting for them.

"Sirius is a free man, he did not do the crimes of which he was sentenced for." Lily said.

"Breaking out of Azkaban is a crime in itself."

"I should have never gone to Azkaban, I received no trial, and if anyone had thought to try me or to give me Veriteserum I would have gladly testified. My rights were violated and therefore I was falsely imprisoned. I broke out because I believed the life of my Godson was in danger. The true person responsible for the death of James was posing as the pet of a boy who shared a dorm with Harry Potter, I couldn't let the threat to my godson's life stand, so I broke out to protect him."

"Would you swear to such in testimony at Peter Pettigrew's trial?"

"I would agree to that, so your trying people now, is that it? Innocent men languish in jail when the likes of Lucius Malfoy and Havier Goyle go free because they can afford to deepen ministry pockets? There is no justice in our legal system, where criminals can plead that they were under the imperious curse and not responsible for any of their actions. Voldemort could have cursed them once and they would still be able to plead the case that they were suffering from the imperious curse."

"How do you know about current events?"

"Prisoners talk, or more of scream their outrage and it's fairly clear to me that our system of justice is a farce. Too often the wrong people are blamed, for example I have a friend named Rubeus Hagrid, he's half giant and therefore people assume the worst of him. When he was a third year I believe he was framed by another student, right around the same time the Death Eaters were first created by the founding members. He was sent to Azkaban six months ago, because the Chamber of Secrets Reopened, once it was discovered that Voldemort had in fact opened the chamber of Secrets and Harry fought him, he was released from the prison. Still he was imprisoned for six months, for a crime he didn't commit when he was thirteen years old! This world values blood too highly and the abilities of others that don't have it, or have the wrong sort of blood not highly enough. Having a magical creature inheritance is fine, if you are one of the prettier ones, most of the old families are distantly related to furies, veela, or dark fey, but heaven forbid you have goblin, centaur, merfolk, dwarf or giant relations. Not to mention the plight of the werewolves, who can't help their condition, once a month they might go furry, so either have them take wolfsbane or run through the forests. They should be allowed the same rights as any other wizard or witch, as should those with magical creature inheritance. If a scion of an ancient house can be falsely imprisoned, what does that say about our government and our society?"

"You repudiate those with a long line of wizards and witches that contributed to our society and call yourself a scion of an ancient house in another?"

"I am much more than a scion, I am the head of House Black, after my brother's untimely death, there was no one else of direct decent to take leadership of our ancient and noble house. I therefore am not just a Scion, I am Lord Black, for what that is worth. More than that, I am a man who has suffered because he fought for your freedoms, because he was wrongly accused of a crime that he did not commit. I am a man who counts werewolves, muggleborns and half giants among my friends and feels that they have a right to have the same opportunities as any other wizard. That if I were to have children, I would be happy for them to have a werewolf for a friend, if they were half the friend mine was to me, they would be lucky and richer for that friendship. There are some things more valuable than gold and those include true friendship and loyalty to one another. I failed my werewolf friend and did not trust in his motives, I begged my best friend James Potter to switch secret keepers to Peter Pettigrew and for that mistake I will pay the rest of my life.

The world is poorer without James Potter in it and had I trusted my friend, had I not doubted that he would never support Voldemort or turn against those he cared about, despite the fact that Voldemort was offering him better rights than he was receiving...We could have avoided so much suffering, we still can, by allowing those with magical ability to exceed expectations. To go beyond the limits of birth and to serve our society and make advancements for our people. How much more magical innovation would we have at this point, if we listened equally to muggle borns and half bloods? How many more spells and potions might we have, if all were allowed equal rights within our society? You can see the proof of their contributions, I stand with Lily Potter, my dear friend, who also is muggleborn. She was always asking me questions, after she got together with my friend James. I answered them to the best of my ability, but after I was sorted into Gryffindor, my lessons in decorum became agony to me, rather than joy. Cursing a child into understanding what you are trying to teach them, only results in the child hating you and repudiating what you are trying to teach. My brother though cleaver was a coward, he'd do exactly as my parents told him and it got him killed. I'm not saying all Slytherin are cowards, just like not all Gryffindor are brave."

"The hat puts us where we most need to go, not where we deserve to go, or where we most would fit in. If that were the case, I would have either been a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw. I wanted people to see me for more than my intelligence and as for Slytherin, the rest of the dorm would have made my life a living hell. It took fifteen minutes but the hat ultimately settled on Gryffindor. I have always been fairly brave, but being among others who lived their lives to the fullest and were brave despite the horrors of the first time Voldemort came to power, I learned something; I learned that you don't know if you will live to see tomorrow, that every day is a gift and should be lived to the fullest. For me that mean reading ancient books and learning all I can, using that knowledge to protect the ones I love and to make my life easier is how I live my life to the fullest. When you enjoy something about each day, even when your circumstances are horrible, you can learn to appreciate what you do have." Lily said

"Or you can go insane, I nearly did. Dementors aren't effective guards, the only reason that no one escapes Azkaban is that either they are released, or they go completely mad. It's nearly impossible to retain your sanity and I've watched at least fifty wizards and witches go insane. Keeping dementors in Azkaban is simply cruelty to its highest degree. Yes they make others afraid to commit crimes, but its better to be kept under the imperius curse, or to be killed than to slowly loose your sanity and yourself. That's what happens when you're forced to repeat the same memories over and over again. I want Peter Pettigrew to die for what he did to me and what he did to James, as well as the thirteen innocent people he killed. I don't want him to be sent to Azkaban because he's a rat and he'll easily be able to escape his cage. He doesn't deserve that, but he doesn't deserve to be tortured into insanity either, no one does. I started to feel sorry for them, these people that had killed people I had liked, seen as friends, because they were going through sheer hell. I watched as they lost all sense of themselves, until they were screaming at the walls and ripping at their own skin. Hatred is easy, where as love is hard, forgiveness is hardest of all. I can't forgive Peter Pettigrew, because he didn't believe what he was doing was right, he did it to save his own skin. He murdered thirteen people to save his own life because make no mistake, I would have killed that dammed traitor. I still want him dead, want it with every inch of my being and the thought of killing him is what kept my sanity. I fixated on that every time I saw my best friend lying dead on the ground and heard the screams of his fifteen-month-old baby. I fixated on that, as I felt my father beat me and felt him curse me over and over again. I felt that need to kill him, as my mother yelled at me for not being the son she wanted, the son she felt she deserved. As I had to relive the deaths I was responsible for while being an auror and fighting against Voldemort's Rebellion. Our way of life is dying, but killing muggleborns and half bloods won't bring it back, celebrating our traditions and sharing them freely will. Learning from one another and respecting the forces that guide our magic and our lives will."

"In addition Pureblood wizard traditions aren't actually how wizards originally preformed their rites and rituals. The way of thinking that gave birth to the modern day Pureblood society actually has its roots in the thirteenth century MD. Before that people had an entirely different approach towards magic and how magical creatures were treated. During the fifteenth century, there were enough people with an isolationist viewpoint that legislation was passed, that classified wizards as the most superior beings on the planet. In addition to which, magic which had never had been classified before was either classified as light magic, grey magic, or dark magic. These classifications have changed with time and with every new generation more and more spells are classified as dark magic, or forbidden magic. In addition to which more cursed objects are confiscated every year. I'm not saying that we should allow people to use whatever spell they like, but magic is always about intent first and foremost. If your intent is to harm, even a first year levitating charm or a petrifying jinx can be deadly. I don't think people should be punished for using magic, however if someone intends to do lasting harm to another witch or wizard, they should be held accountable." Lily said and took out her wand. "Acuomunda" She muttered pointing her wand at her wrist, instantly a large gash opened across her wrist and she held up her bleeding left hand. "

"Conclusivulnus." She said loudly and her wrist closed up. "The first spell is a cutting jinx which was used in ancient rights and rituals. The second spell I used was one that heals wounds. Both spells went out of practice in the twelfth century, because wizards were so afraid of being hunted down and burnt by angry mobs of muggle, that they stopped practicing their rituals for a period of thirty years. By the time the Flame-Freezing Charm was invented and it was considered safe to practice, the rituals again, many of the elders had passed and much knowledge was lost. The losses of this time period are greater than that suffered by the wizard community during the rise of the Dark Lord Grindlewald and Voldemort combined. Every magical family lost at least ten people who were close relations and that devastation is still very much in the minds of Pureblood wizards to this very day. Muggle aren't yet advanced enough to handle the existence of our society, however this does not mean I believe that we should separate ourselves from other magical beings. We shouldn't divide ourselves by species, ancestry or wealth. We should try to find what we have in common, rather than seeking things that divide us. We should remember that we all have certain strengths and weaknesses and we should never assume the capability of another wizard based on blood status. I now know three thousand curses, charms, hexes and jinxes, I can make contracts with the elements, I can make fireballs appear in the palm of my hands, I can make someone happy even when they have lost everything and make someone feel despair even when they are the happiest of people. Voldemort was right on one count, there is no good or evil only power and those that are willing to use it. I am willing to use it, I will use it to protect those I love." Lily said and smiled, before she disapparated from the bank and into the library at Hogwarts, she'd read long ago that the founders had made their decedents able to apparate into the building at will as long as they didn't mean any harm to the students there.

Lily walked up to Gryffindor tower and knocked on the door, a older boy answered it and stared at her. "Something is wrong with your son, we've got him in a body bind but..." Lily rushed past him to where Harry was on the floor cursing in parseltongue. She stared down at her child hoping that she was right, that the spell she was about to use wouldn't kill her baby.

"Be gone parasite from the body of a pure soul, for all you will receive in there is torment. Be gone creature, crying out in pain, for you have lost all but one part of your soul. Be gone creature for I will not allow you to harm my son! Be gone creature for you are no longer a man and to you existence is pain. Be gone creature that was once a child, who suffered the cruelty of others. Be gone creature you are no longer a man, but a shadow of what you could have been. In the name of the four elements, in the name of the cycle, I banish you to the realms beyond this life. May you find peace in the next." Lily intoned as she said the words Harry screamed and cursed at her, before his eyes rolled back into the back of his head and he went limp. A moment later he fell unconscious. "Ennervate." Lily said and Harry's eyes blinked open.

"Mum?" Harry said his eyes barely keeping open. "What happened?"

"You are alright now Harry, you must rest, my brave boy." Lily said and settled his head into her lap, stroking his hair gently as his eyes closed and he started to snore.

"What was that?" Hermione demanded.

"Ancient magic, pure magic, I am about to make my vows and so the spirits of nature permitted me to summon them, to heal Harry." Lily said and found she both felt tired and invigorated. "The ancient knowledge is something I would be willing to teach you, but you can only go so far in it, without swearing your vows."

"What vows are those?" Hermione asked and Lily smiled.

"I'll tell you at breakfast, first I must take my son to the hospital wing, so Pomphrey can check him over." Lily said and Hermione nodded, Lily cast a levitating charm on Harry and went to the hospital wing.

"Goodness what happened?"

"I defeated Voldemort, but before I could banish him from this plane, he took control of Harry." Lily replied and Pomphrey frowned.

"I will examine him, did you ensure that the spirit was gone from him?"

"I did, I woke him for a moment after to ensure it. I used an ancient rite of banishing evil spirits." Lily replied and Pomphrey nodded.

"Very good, do you know how long he should sleep for?"

"It said that three days was normal and tiredness could happen for another two." Lily replied and Pomphrey nodded.

"Thank you." Pomphrey said and Lily smiled at the healer.

"I did it for everyone, but most of all I did it for my son." Lily said and shuddered. "Voldemort was never fully human, he used dark magic to tear at his own soul, to ensure his own immortality. That dark magic twisted and corrupted him in ways that he could not have known would have happened to him."

"It is a good thing then that he is gone."

"A very good thing." Lily said and took her son's hand in her own, watching as his breath rose and fell in his chest. She didn't know how long she stayed there until the Hospital wing door flew open and a pale Severus was escorted in by two students, another four helping two injured students.

"I should not have taught today." Severus admitted, lying down on a bed. "Its my fault they were injured, I should have realized how exhausted I was and not taught classes." He laid back against the pillows and Madam Pomphrey glared at him.

"You do realize that I have an additional two patients now and you may have well set back your own recovery?" She demanded and got only a snore in response, Madam Pomphrey sighed and shook her head. "Put them over there dears, while I see to the professors, boils are easy enough to remove." She assured the injured second years, Lily watched as Madam Pomphrey summoned potions and checked Severus over. She sighed before administering the potions to the two students and sent them on their way, before giving a barrage of potions to Severus.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's got a fever from straining himself, I'm giving him some core strengtheners, as well as fever reducers and pain potions, as I imagine that he has quite the migraine by now." Madam Pomphrey said and indeed Severus' face seemed to relax as she finished administering the potions. Madam Pomphrey then took off his robes and boots and settled him under the blankets. "You don't have to stay dear, you must be hungry by now."

"I can't leave Harry." Lily said looking to her sleeping son and stroking back the hair on his face. Madam Pomphrey nodded, frowning slightly as she did so.

"Very well but at least eat something, I don't need a third patient in here for exhaustion." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily nodded, a moment later she was eating a delicious plate of chicken sandwiches. She finished the food and got out a quill, writing notes on what she wanted her classes to be and outlining in detail her course aims. She then started writing the textbooks the students would be using. She had finished the first one and working on the second, when Madam Pomphrey shook her arm.

"Its time for dinner dear, you always so absorbed in your work that Severus and later James would have to remind you to eat." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily laughed ruefully.

"I would like to stay with Harry."

"I'll make up a cot then, but I expect you to be in by ten. You've had a long day and you shouldn't be trying to do so much so soon."

"Yes Madam." Lily said and was given a bowl of soup, which she ate, and then another bowl.

"See if you can get him to wake enough to eat something, I'll tend to Severus." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily nodded, she shook Harry's shoulder gently and then slightly harder.

"Harry?" Lily asked and his eyes fluttered open, he groaned and put a hand to his face.

"Bright."

"Nox." Lily said dimming the lights. "Now can you eat some soup Harry?" She asked and he nodded, she sat with him as he finished and helped him to lie back down after he was done, gently tucking in the covers as she did so. She gently ran her fingers through his hair, he was asleep a moment later. Lily smiled down at her son and kissed him gently on the forehead.

"Leave me alone, I just want to rest." Severus protested.

"If you don't eat then you won't get better as quickly Severus." Madam Pomphrey chided and Lily walked over to Severus.

"Do as she says Severus, you know she'll get her way, one way or another." Lily said and Severus stared at her in wide-eyed adoration.

"Lily, I must be dreaming." He said and smiled. "I'm glad it's a good dream for once."

"Me too Sev, now eat your soup, after you finish we can talk" Lily said and Severus nodded hastily. "I'll be right here." Lily assured him and watched as Severus slowly ate his eyes drooping closed, before snapping open to only droop closed again. He barely finished the soup and Madam Pomphrey moved to help him to lie down.

"No I want to look at her, why are you in the hospital wing?" Severus said sounding confused, Lily realized that he truly thought he was dreaming.

"I came to watch over Harry and you." Lily said and smiled, taking his hand. "Now are you going to take care of yourself, or will I have to take out my wand and spell you into sleeping like I did when we were small."

"Didn't spell me." Severus protested weakly. "Just resting my eyes."

"And snoring." Lily said with a laugh.

"Laugh again your so pretty." Severus said and Lily laughed, he was clearly very disoriented, loopy from the pain potion and magical exhaustion.

"Thank you Severus, now lie back and I'll give you your present." Lily said and Severus lay back down.

"What present?" Severus asked, his eyes closing of their own accord.

"A bit of string that I tied around the ends of a rainbow." Lily said and Severus laughed. "What would you give me?"

"A stopper for death, I'm so sorry Lily." Severus said.

"Its alright Sev its not your fault, you didn't really realize what that prophecy meant, you were little more than a child. I forgave you long ago." Lily said and took his hand and squeezed. "What happened to me and James and Harry wasn't your fault, you were brainwashed into believing that you were doing the right thing." Lily said and Severus' eyes filled with tears, Lily hugged him. "None of that, everyone does things that they regret, but you realized what you were doing was wrong and you started working for the Order at great personal risk. It would have gotten out somehow, if it wasn't you it would have been someone else."

"But I killed you Lily!" Severus wailed and Lily stared at him in shocked surprise.

"Oh Sev, you didn't kill me, even if I had died, it would have been Voldemort that killed me, not you." Lily told him, but Severus didn't seem to be comprehending her words, all he seemed capable of was clinging to her as he sobbed. "Can I cast a sleeping spell?"

"He'll exhaust himself soon and its not recommended to do sleeping spells with cases of magical exhaustion." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily stared at Severus, having no choice but simply to hold him as he sobbed. His sobs ebbed until they stopped entirely and he became lax against her, his grip falling away as he started to snore. "I'll set him into bed deary." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily nodded, as Madam Pomphrey gently moved Severus so that he was lying down, against the cot, rather than curled into Lily. Lily stood and realized that she was exhausted, taking the cot that Madam Pomphrey had given her she crawled under the blankets and grabbed Harry's hand before falling asleep herself


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Lily woke the next morning and got out of her cot, going over to Harry's at once. She took his hand and brushed the hair from his eyes. He sighed in his sleep and she smiled softly at him. "It's going to be alright Harry, I'll make sure that we'll be alright and that no one will ever harm you again." Lily said her eyes filling with tears as she looked down at her son. She wiped at her eyes and sat down next to him, content to watch him sleep for a little while.

It was quiet in the infirmary apart from Severus' snores and Harry's deep breathing. Madam Pomphrey had clearly retreated to her office, the diagnostic charms on the beds alerting her if anything went wrong. Lily smiled softly at her son, before taking out her quill and notebooks, continuing to write down what she had learned over the last thirteen years. She finished the second book by the time Madam Pomphrey appeared from her office and stared at Lily who smiled at her.

"Good morning." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey laughed.

"You look like you did as a student, with your hair mussed up and scribbling frantically in a journal." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily smiled in return.

"I've finished two books out of the five, I can't teach a course without course books after all." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey eyes widened.

"Which ones are these then?" She asked and Lily smiled.

"The first will be focused in learning etiquette, second in comportment, third in decorum, fourth in ancient ritual and finally the fifth will be independent guided study." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey looked shocked.

"You are going to assist students in researching chosen topics?"

"Indeed though only Miss Bradlegrace has managed to significantly impress me." Lily said. "Hopefully I'll be able to finish writing the course materials by the end of the day and then speak with Miss Bradlegrace about what she wishes to study."

"This girl already knew ancient rituals?"

"How they are currently taught within Pureblood societies, though I may do even more ancient rituals depending upon how much respect the students in that class actually have for what I'm teaching, this is the basics at least." Lily said and smiled. "Though I was much more intrigued by wizarding customs and rituals of the twelfth century, they need to get by within the modern society, not the society that once existed."

"Is it really that different?"

"Highly different from every manuscript I have read." Lily said and stood. "I'll get these bound and to the students." She added before leaving the hospital wing, she found the office supply cabinet and used a binding charm to work with the paper and leather she found in the cupboard. She made enough copies of both books to give to her students taking those classes; she then went to the Great Hall. "Good Morning everyone, I haven't finished writing yet, but here are the books for my classes on etiquette and comportment." Lily said and passed out the books to everyone taking those classes and gave two to Dumbledore as well.

"I have my lesson plans ready for when you wish to review them, I don't think I'll be able to teach today, I might finish writing the books by tomorrow, but I don't know for certain.

"Its fine Ms. Potter, these seem intriguing so far and less dry than most books I've come across on such subjects."

"Thank you Professor, I had a long time to consider how I wished to go about writing these books." Lily said and smiled. "Though this is merely current day and does not cover the historical culture of wizards."

"Could you teach a class in that?" Dumbledore asked and Lily shook her head.

"I know barely enough to create a book half that size, suffice it to say a lot of muggle sixteenth century mannerisms were picked up along the way." Lily said and Dumbledore laughed.

"I always rather thought we were rather medieval in our approach towards one another, but come to learn its renaissance muggle behavior we've been mimicking?"

"Not entirely there are some other cultural norms that are entirely unique to wizards, but if you were to pick up a book on cultural norms of sixteenth century England, you would find a lot of similarities. That is after all when we decided to shroud ourselves from the view of Muggle and therefore developed our own society. However those customs weren't the original customs at all. From the earliest book I've ever read to around the tenth century, magic was all about harmonizing with the elements and elemental forces, some claimed that it was the very elemental spirits themselves which we got our magic from and our wands are used to channel it. Other theories have come and gone, but I like to believe that the spirits saw something in me and they chose me to protect them and the land, through use of my magic." Lily said and smiled.

"I've always heard that magic was a birthright and as to where it came from, no one really states." Miss. Bradlegrace said and Lily shook her head.

"No magic is not something that is a birthright, though it can run in families. How your magical core works with the elements around you is different for each person. I am skilled with transformative magics and that includes potions, while others are skilled in defensive or offensive magics. We can learn to gain some ability in those areas, but we won't ever be as good as those that are naturally inclined towards such." Lily stated. "I believe and this is purely supposition on my part that the different abilities of wizards and witches occur for a reason, magic is powerful and creates as well as it destroys. However when that power is improperly channeled or spells are improperly used, it can cause chaos, madness and upset the balance. We use many more spells that are considered light then darker magics, both are part of the balance, too much of one or the other causes not only strife and fighting amongst us but in extreme cases can also cause floods, draughts, earthquakes and snowstorms as well as other more severe weather. For years magical creatures that are more attuned with the land then we are have been behaving unpredictably. I feel that we should go back to the old way personally, but failing that restore the balance at least."

"And what is the balance?" Miss. Bradlegrace asked and Lily smiled.

"It's everything, good and evil, darkness and light, strength and weakness, life and death to all these things and more besides there is a natural balance. A system of ebb and flow, a knowing of truth and falsehood that those that follow the principals of the balance see in all life. The balance is everything and nothing; it is the supreme force at the center of our universe. Or so the ancient wizards and shamans believed. Before wizards believed in a higher power they believed first in the balance. Then slowly things began to change, wizards started to follow muggle gods, false gods as these old books would tell it, for all state firmly that you yourself are a god and you need to remember your power. To be a positive force in this world and stop chaos and the upsetting of that very balance that we were charged with protecting."

"By who?"

"I am uncertain, perhaps a god, or a being from another planet, or perhaps it was a personal charge. You can believe whatever you like about where your duty comes from, be it from the gods, god, or your fellow wizards. The ancient tomes never discussed where exactly this charge came from, but they were all clear on this one point, one day the balance will be upset beyond repair and all magical beings will be snuffed out along with all other life on the planet."

"It sounds like superstitious nonsense to me." Hermione stated. "Just as much as the belief in God, the belief in fates and whatever else people believe. Personally I believe in facts, in proof."

Lily smiled at her and nodded. "You want proof, very well, this spell was used to measure the balance and the scale between what is now known as dark magic and light magic." Lily said and cast the spell; everyone stared at the silver light that filled the room. "Silver and shadow colored magic was considered to be a sign to cast light or dark spells for a week, to maintain the balance, there were also spells that one could cast on themselves, or each other." Lily said and cast a spell on herself; she began to glow with a warm grey light. "This is a healthy core according to the ancients, as for the proof you demanded Hermione, how about this? Before I learned how to cast this spell non verbally I could do about fifty spells nonverbally, afterwards I could do over a hundred and as I followed the principals of the ancient order of Merlin, I found that my ability to work with magic to increase ten fold." Lily said and cast a cheering charm on the entire school, all around her students and teachers burst into laughter, smiles on their faces, as Dumbledore and others stared at her in amazement.

"How did you..."Draco paused for breath, as he continued to laugh. "Do that?"

"They are just cheering charms, with enough practice and a strong magical core, you would be able to do it as well, as other things." Lily said and conjured a snake, she then sent a spell to give it a headache, it hissed in anger and Lily cast a body binds. She then banished it again and smiled at the school. "See how my core reacted to that magic, the difference is slight, but with using two curses its darkened a bit already."

"Can you show me mine?" Hermione asked and Lily nodded.

"Of course, would you prefer it if I did it now, or in private?"

"Now." Hermione said and Lily cast the spell on her, Hermione stared at her core, which was a dark silver in color.

"Your core is relatively healthy, if you wish to maintain more power you may want to consider becoming a grey witch, but the choice is ultimately yours to make." Lily said and then cast another spell over herself. "This was once a spell that was cast over everyone during Beltane, it was how couples found one another. While not a soul searching spells, it shows what qualities you possess clearly and accurately. Red for bravery, yellow for loyalty, silver for cunning, blue for intelligence, purple for humor, pink for kindness and green for ambition. Black signifies someone who has hatred in his or her hearts for another and white signifies love. Gold is optimism and those that have less orange were once considered to be less optimistic people. Brown is for those that have a great imagination and they are often cheery and happy people. Usually people don't have quite such a range of colors, I was nearly a hat stall in my first year." Lily said and smiled. "I don't think I would have been particularly welcome in Slytherin and I didn't want to go to Ravenclaw, it fought me over both in turn, before questioning if I should be in Hufflepuff, I didn't mind but we both agreed that it might not be the best fit for me and that left Gryffindor." Lily said and several students appeared shocked, while Hermione's hand jutted up. "This isn't a class Hermione, feel free to ask your question."

"So what your saying is, that the hat doesn't pick our house, we do?"

"To some extent you must have the potential to belong in that house for the hat to agree to it. If I as a muggleborn eleven year old girl had asked to be put into Slytherin, no doubt the hat would have intensely questioned my motivation." Lily said and Hermione laughed.

"Can you cast that spell on me, I wanna see it."

"Its intensely personal Hermione." Lily warned.

"I don't care." Hermione said and Lily shrugged before casting the spell on Hermione. She was surprised by how much ambition Hermione had, while her intelligence was nearly as strong and her compassion was only slightly smaller. She had a lot of optimism a lot of love in her heart as well as a lot of hatred. The smallest color of all was her courage and Hermione smiled shyly at Lily. "Am I brave?" She asked.

"Very brave to realize what you most needed to work on and decide to go with a house that you might not fit in at first." Lily said and grinned. "Don't worry, courage comes from within, if you feel something is worthwhile, don't hold yourself back by doubts and pursue it to the fullest." She said and Hermione nodded.

"Do me, I want to see my colors." A young girl from the Ravenclaw table asked and Lily nodded. "I want to show everyone my colors." She added and Lily cast the spell, the girl laughed delightedly as warm yellow, red, brown, pink, gold and blue colors surrounded her. "Kind of what I thought." She said and grinned, waving her hand and laughing at how her skin sparkled.

"You are intensely creative, kind and courageous, you are also very intelligent with a wisdom beyond your years." Lily said and smiled. "The book I found on finding one's core nature stated who had similar colors, Merlin had colors like yours. You would be wise to consider how to council and console others, you are a natural healer and protector of those weaker then you. You do not hate many people, but you do not love many either."

"I love my Father." The girl said and smiled. "Thank you.

"Of course, anyone else want to do this?" Lily asked.

"I'll have a go." Ron said and Lily nodded.

"In front of everyone or in private."

"In front of everyone." Ron said squaring his shoulders and Lily nodded casting the charm on him as well. A lot of red, as well as yellow, pink, purple and a larger amount of gold met her then Lily had seen so far. He also had a great deal of love and a great deal of hatred in his heart.

"You are kind, courageous, you have a great sense of humor and you are fairly optimistic. You also feel very strongly about others, to the point where you either love someone or hate them and should be careful in how you judge others. You are creative and work well with others. You like being around people and make friends fairly easily and keep lasting friendships. You and others like you make excellent Aurors and leaders. People once called people like you Paladins and so it does not surprise me that you wound up in Gryffindor. The original intention was to bring the apprentices of four masters together so that they might learn from one another. They would receive training on how to become paladins, sorcerers, and healers and spell makers. Over time we lost the need to create spells and now no one knows how to make them safely anymore, as for healers it was determined that you could learn healing besides basic potions after you finished your seventh year. Sorcerers and paladins merged together into what is now modern wizardry."

"You mean that I would be a healer, if I lived back then?" A student from Hufflepuff asked and Lily smiled.

"Ten points to Hufflepuff, precisely and Slytherin were once supposed to be sorcerers and sorcerers had a completely different approach to magic, than Paladins did, they wished to study it and to plan how to best go about using their discoveries, while paladins rushed headlong into any situation, prepared to defend the other three castes of wizards against any threat."

"Castes?" It was Malfoy who spoke up and Lily nodded.

"Before the houses and sorting, certain families did certain things. For example the Peverell who the Weasley and Potter lines descend from were famous Paladins. The Malfoy were sorcerers, as for the rest of you I'm uncertain, you might want to do some research. I assure you that I will treat you better then you have treated my son, as you are children and undeserving of my biases. However that does not mean I will tolerate you misbehaving in my classroom. When you are in my lessons, I expect you to pay attention and comport yourselves as the young wizards and witches you are. I would expect that all those that wish to take my classes will respect me as their teacher and their fellow students enough to be able to be somewhat civil for an hour out of your day. If you find yourself to be incapable of such, kindly do not waste my time and look elsewhere for your education." Lily said and smirked curling one lip up in a near snarl. "I do not tolerate any misbehavior in my classroom, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Ms Potter." The students said and Lily smiled.

"Thank you, if you wish to see your core but wish to do so in private, come to me and I will show you your personal traits and how those can be turned towards affinities. If you like I could also show you your affinities." Lily said and smiled, casting another spell and grinning as the colors changed around her. She was left with a core of swirling red, blue and purple with veins of green. "These are mine, the green is healing magic, the blue is transforming magic, the purple is transmuting magic, or what is now referred to as Charms. The black is dark magic and the white is white magic. The green is healing magic, such as potions or spells used in the healing arts. As for the red, that is wild magic, which includes non-verbal spells. As a witch I can change my affinity through hard work and dedicated practice. I have had the least opportunity to work on potions over the years and so my affinity for healing magic is much weaker than my other affinities."

"You have a great affinity for dark magic." Dumbledore said and Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed Professor? You try living as a cat, you wouldn't last a year before the hairballs and the humiliation of having to shit in a box got to you. I looked for every spell I could think of to transform myself back and yes some of those spells were of the darker persuasion. You are a hypocrite of the highest order at any rate." Lily said and cast the spell at Dumbledore, who had no defense against it. Sure enough his core was grey in color with the other colors being eclipsed by both white magic and dark magic. "The spell changes itself to see what we wish it to see, much as our society changes. He's not someone to trust children; you will pay for it if you do. People like him and He Who Must Not be named are devoted to gathering power and other witches and wizards to their cause, to use them to their own end. I was naive and didn't understand anything about magic when he came to me and made promises, none of which he kept. People like him were once considered arch mages and regardless of if it's a dark arch mage or a light arch mage, they will do anything to achieve their goals so be very careful in trusting one."

"Lily..." Dumbledore said and Lily glared at him.

"Its your fault James is dead, your fault that Neville grew up without his parents, not He Who Must Not Be Named, not his followers yours!"

"They made their own choice!"

"Did they Dumbledore, did they really? It's clear to me that you will stop at nothing to gain power. You caused the death of your sister, murdered the only man you ever loved and have either killed or been responsible for the deaths of countless other students."

"You can't say this to me, you're..."

"I Lily Potter Nee Evans of House Potter and of the blood of Gryffindor and Slytherin do so declare Albus Wolfrick Brian Dumbledore unfit to be headmaster of this school. I call upon the spirits of Hogwarts to judge him worthy or unworthy of serving as Headmaster!" Lily said and a wind moved throughout the hall tugging at Dumbledore's robes.

"You can't do this, I fire you."

"You can't fire me, as the descendent of the Founders of this school, I and those who have the same blood in their veins can proclaim anyone unfit to teach or be Headmaster of this school, as I have done with you. You will not be welcome in these halls or on these grounds again!" Lily said and the wind picked up sweeping Dumbledore out of the school and Lily smiled as everyone in the hall stared at her. "Now does anyone wish to duel me over what has just occurred."

"He was a dark wizard, how didn't I see it?" McGonagall asked and Lily shook her head.

"That's what's wrong with light and dark classification of spells, he used more light spells than dark. A lord of light can be just as bad as a dark lord." Lily stated and several people shivered around the hall. "I meant to plan this out better, but I never expected to actually be human again so I'm winging it." Lily said and grinned. "If being in Gryffindor teaches you anything it's to fly by the seat of your pants." Lily said and several people laughed. "Would you like a cheering charm, or a calming charm, I know some of you must be quite shocked by what has happened."

"I believe that will be unnecessary dear." McGonagall said and Lily smiled.

"Can I cast the spell on you, I need to know your magical affinity."

"I have nothing to hide dear, cast the spell." McGonagall said and Lily nodded, casting the spell she smiled.

"While powerful you temper that power and do not seek to acquire it by any means necessary. You are a suitable Headmistress. By my blood, by my ancestors I do submit this witch for judgment, is she worthy to run Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" The castle glowed white and Lily smiled. "It seems it accepts you."

"Its sentient?"

"Yes to some extent, Hogwarts was built over a lay line, spirits are drawn here and it is a place of great magic. With time every student that has come through its halls has left an imprint of some sort behind. It remembers and it knows what is good for it and for the students learning inside of it and what is bad for it and them. Every teacher used to have to face the school in a ritual before being accepted to teach here." Lily smiled and caressed the table, light moved under her fingers and she smiled. She traced a rune as an experiment and laughed delightedly as four people appeared in front of her.

"You met the conditions we set to awaken us." The man in armor spoke first and smiled at Lily. "Hello Grand Daughter." He said and Lily smiled curtsying in deference.

"Hello Grandfather, may the circle be unbroken."

"May all that enter it feel the light of the sun and moon." Gryffindor returned and to Lily's shock hugged her.

"You are corporeal?" Lily asked and Gryffindor nodded.

"We attempted a potion which would strengthen our abilities as we slept buried beneath the earth for such a time that we were needed." Gryffindor said.

"Though how someone could have my blood as well as Gryffindor sickens me." A man with a hooked nose and a slight sneer frowned at Lily. "You aren't what I anticipated."

"Disappointed Grandfather Salazar?"

"No, but I thought for certain that the way to preserve our culture was through insulating ourselves from muggle and refusing to allow the two cultures to merge. Unfortunately given the state of things from what I can read in your thoughts, it has not gone as I had hoped and apparently one of my decedents killed Bethany, who was really only supposed to defend my lab, personal library and resting place. At least the passageway caved in so no one can enter my tomb and mess up my things." He said and Lily laughed. "What is so funny girl?"

"You sound exactly like a friend of mine." Lily said and Salazar looked shocked.

"Indeed well this shall prove to be interesting indeed."

"I'm looking forward to being able to teach again, oh dear you are looking so pale dears." Helga Hufflepuff said to the Slytherin and turned to Lily.

"Who is your healer, something must be done about the state of these students."

"I think they are fine Mistress Hufflepuff, they simply live in the dungeons and doing that for generation upon generation has had a certain affect upon their skin." Lily stated and Helga frowned.

"Oh dear, we never intended for that to happen, you must get plenty of sunshine dears and possibly find other accommodations."

"We like the dungeons just fine." Draco said and smiled at Hufflepuff. "It is wonderful to meet you Mi Lady."

"And you, its funny how similar some of you are to students we once taught." Helga said and smiled. "You for example could be the brother of Anthony Malfoy, a shy muggleborn student who I had the pleasure of having in my house, when Slytherin refused to accept him." She smiled apparently lost in memory. "He was a very good student and very gifted in the healing arts, he became a wonderful healer and I was very proud to have been his instructor."

"You taught the founder of my line?" Draco demanded and Helga smiled.

"Indeed I did, though we learned nearly as much from our students as they did from us. I can see their faces in yours, even over a thousand years after our deaths, their legacy and ours lives on in you." Helga said and smiled at Draco.

"Hufflepuff do stop coddling them." Slytherin protested. "Such displays are sickening."

"Oh come here you old fuddy duddy." Helga said and wrapped her arms around him, he gave her a glare in return and Lily laughed again.

"What is it with Slytherin and public displays of affection?" Lily asked and Slytherin leveled that glare on her.

"It is entirely undignified." Slytherin said and Helga let go, he then crossed his arms. "Are you quite done?"

"Yes Salazar." Helga said and smiled. "Just ignore them dear, I think the hat might have had quite the wrong idea. We wished to sort you according to your talents, not by who was most like us."

"Indeed at least Ravenclaw are still intelligent, I may be able to impart some wisdom to those I believe to be deserving. Are you deserving Granddaughter?"

"I hope so, but I don't even know what you mean by that. There are many ways to be deserving of something."

"Indeed you are correct, we are not here to influence who you are or how this school is run, simply here to make you aware of what once was in the wizarding world and can be again. Our Granddaughter was right in how your culture has changed drastically from the world I once knew. I don't believe that to be a bad thing, however I feel you have the right to know who you once were as well as what you have become." Gryffindor said and smiled at the students.

"We lived in harmony with other magical beings once, it saddens me to know how isolated we have become." Helga stated.

"Even though I protested the inclusion of muggleborn students for security reasons, I never would have treated them like second class citizens. All that are gifted with magic are welcome here and I am angered by the fact that my supposed actions have lead you to justify hating all that aren't like you. This isn't the spirit in which we formed this school, we formed it so students might come together and learn from one another. Not this mockery of what we attempted to build, Gryffindor and I are friends, I left the school because my health was failing and I wished to spend my last years in comfort and contemplation, not because I was angry at the rest of the school. Not because I sought to harm other students and teachers that were in it. I was simply a tired old man who wished to spend his last days in leisure, rather than policing students." Slytherin said and crossed his arms. "You disappoint me all of you, you are not a credit to the House I attempted to build."

"Neither are you, we meant for you to learn from one another, not to pick fights and throw insults." Gryffindor stated. "I am disappointed in all of you. With the exception of my Granddaughter, who learned the true meaning of this school and set about trying to change the mockery of what was once our society that this world has become."

"Its different, but I wouldn't consider it to be a mockery, there are good points?"

"Truly Granddaughter, when our blood is treated so badly? When common niceties are denied for so many and instead outright magicism prevails?"

"No one calls it that, but it is true that some wizards believe themselves to be superior to others."

"What a complete and utter load of crock." Slytherin said and laughed. "You truly believe yourselves to be superior, half of you are descended from hedge witches who could barely cast anything resembling a spell. We had to drill the basics into their dim skulls and hope vainly in some cases that they had enough intelligence not to maim themselves or get themselves killed." Salazar stated and Lily stared at him.

"Salazar!" Helga protested.

"What Helga you know its true."

"But you need not be so blunt about it."

"You might as well tell the sun not to rise, as tell our dear Salazar to not be blunt and acerbic." Gryffindor said with a chuckle.

"Oh yes lets do pick on me, you are just as bad Gryffindor, have you stopped the hall from moving forward by offering the door to a young witch yet?" Salazar asked. "Or bestowed blossoms upon that said same young witch and told her that she was a beauty beyond compare and a fitting match for your son. You offered the boy to them half a dozen times and each time your child denied them and the poor dears were crushed weren't they. It came to the point where I had to create a bloody love finding potion for your brat."

"Severus!" Helga said. "That was uncalled for."

"Simply the truth, I pity my students, Godric was bad enough, I'd hate to be faced with an entire house that is attempting to model themselves after him." Slytherin stated and Gryffindor glared at him.

"Like you are so much better, with your dark incantations and foul smells." Gryffindor said and then both men laughed.

"At least I didn't wake you up with sword drills at five in the morning!" Slytherin fired back.

"Lads do I need to separate you?" Hufflepuff demanded and they looked guiltily at her.

"Sorry Helga." Gryffindor apologized. "We will be on our best behavior from now on."

"I doubt that very much, indeed I pity my house for having to put up with such ridiculousness." Helga stated and crossed her arms. "You wouldn't think to look at them that they are even friends."

"Friends?" Several people at different tables demanded and Helga smiled.

"Of course, we are a coven that meant that when we were alive we shared everything with each other, our magic, our love and our joys and sadness. Even our bodies when we wished to and we each had one another's children. Though why Stephano took such a fancy to Helena I'll never know. I am so very glad I wasn't there to see my child kill Rowena's daughter." Helga stated and everyone appeared to be shocked. "You know them as the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron but they were our children."

"Did you have many children?" Lily asked.

"Between the four of us we had twelve children." Helga said and smiled. "Seven were mine and five were Rowena's, six were Gryffindor and eight were Slytherin. We raised them together and brought them up like siblings."

"Indeed those were the happiest years of our lives." Gryffindor said and bowed to Rowena. "Might I take your hand my lady?"

"Of course, you need never ask for my favor Gryffindor." Rowena said and held hands with Gryffindor who beamed at her.

"A very touching display I am sure, heaven forbid he grows fond of you, he's a very tactile person and he doesn't care much about personal space or boun..." Gryffindor launched himself at Slytherin and planted a kiss on the man's lips, Slytherin stiffened as he was kissed, but then relaxed into it, moaning and kissing Gryffindor back with equal passion. Rowena smiled at Helga who returned the smile with one of her own.

"Well we can hardly let them have all the fun." Helga said and kissed Rowena who combed her fingers through Helga's bushy hair.

"Apparently we misread slightly." Helga said disentangling herself from Rowena. "Although less rigid then when we were alive public displays of affection are still considered taboo to some degree."

"I doubt we'll be able to break them apart now though." Rowena said and smiled at the two men. "Though it is a pretty picture." Rowena said.

"Rowena, there are children present." Lily hissed and Rowena smiled.

"Yes dear, but there's no harm in giving them an education." Rowena said and Lily stared at her in shock. "We are a complete quatrad meaning that we share one core and everything else, including our bodies, minds and spirits. We were hand fasted at Beltane in the year 947 of the muggle calendar we are committed to one another in all ways one can commit to another and we love each other deeply, truly and lastingly."

Slytherin broke away bite marks on both their lips and crossed his arms. "I suppose you are quite pleased with yourself.

"Not as pleased as I would be if we continued that in a more private setting." Gryffindor returned. "You got the upper hand today my love, but it will not last long."

"They enjoy dominance and submission games, personally I always prefer to be submissive, and it allows the mind to think of things other than the momentary pleasure." Rowena said and Helga grinned.

"You know how it turns me on when you get all smart like that." Helga stated and smiled. "This reminds me of the day..."

"No Helga, you will not tell them that story!" Slytherin stated. "I'll loose what esteem I've garnered over the centuries."

"Godric befuddled Salazar into believing that he'd put on clothes, when really all he had on was the vision paint from the revelries that took place the night before. You should have heard the shout when he realized that Godric had pranked him."

"You walked into the Great Hall naked?" Lily asked.

"Skyclad and a staring third year stopped me before I could do so, his eyes as big as saucers. He stated that I apparently had not come down from the ritual the previous night and he much preferred me to instruct him with my robes on." Slytherin said dryly and Godric laughed.

"That was a good one, I got you good that time."

"Not as good as the time I made you confess your undying love to a house elf, startled the poor thing half to death."

"We had to put into place a rule that they couldn't meddle with one another's minds, if you can believe it. Such brilliance and yet such idiocy." Rowena shook her head.

"Wait you were pranksters?" The Weasley twins demanded and both men nodded.

"The women were off limits and so we amused ourselves by pranking one another, neither one of us likes to submit very much."

"You don't need to tell them everything Gryffindor." Slytherin stated and Gryffindor frowned.

"Ah yes I suppose that's true, but now is as good of time as any for them to learn about power dynamics in and out of the bedroom."

"I think they can quite figure that out by themselves." Lily stated.

"As you wish Headmistress."

"I'm not Headmistress, she is!"

"No you aren't you are the one who woke us from our sleep, the one that knows the old ways, either you lead the school or no one does." Slytherin stated firmly. "In addition to which, I Salazar Slytherin of House Slytherin do declare this witch to be the Head of my House."

"No fair, I wanted to make her the Head of my House!" Gryffindor pouted.

"Why can't we all do so, after all she does seem to be the most deserving of our decedents." Ravenclaw stated and smiled at Lily who stared at her shocked by the turn of events.

"Indeed I agree, I Godric Gryffindor of House Gryffindor do declare this witch to be the Head of My House. Lily Potter is now the Head of the Gryffindor family."

"I Rowena Ravenclaw do declare Lily Potter to be the Head of my House and to be worthy of inheriting all my worldly possessions." Rowena said and smiled at Lily who stared at her shocked.

"I can't be the head of three houses."

"I find that you can and you'll do wonderfully at it dear." Helga said and smiled. "Oh and I would be ever so grateful if you might be able to find a descendant worthy of being the head of my family line."

"I wouldn't know where to begin looking, all those that are known about died long ago."

"True but you have the ability to cast a lineage spell and you could easily cast one on those in the hall. I know you were thinking of that very thing dear."

"Do me first! Please Professor Potter do me first!" Hermione called from across the hall, Lily smiled and cast the spell. She stared at Hermione as the names appeared above her head. Hermione was related to Morgana Lefae through her Mother's side as well as the Dark Wizard Mordrid Lefae and Mordechi Lefae inventor of the Amortia potion. The rumor that Morgana was related to dark fey also proved to be true, as several of the names on the list were written in High Fae, a language that had not been spoken in nearly a thousand years. The High Fae decided to flee into another realm centuries before once the threat of humans and the cold iron they carried became too great. She was also related through her mother's side to a family of healers who had been famous in the fourteenth century for their work to eradicate the plague and had been well known healers for three centuries after that, until one of their sons became a squib. They had given up the baby to a monastery wishing to save him the heartache of being unable to truly live as a wizard. Their other son had grown up but a chance broom accident had killed him in his twenties and the family was thought to be lost forever. The last wish of the Father of that dying line was to start a hospital and name it Saint Mungos. He had started training young wizards and witches as he could not train his own sons and taught them all he knew. The hospital he started became the finest in the wizarding world and was one of the first of its kind, which would take in people regardless of station. Hermione was also related through her father's side to a famous family of spell makers and researchers, Lily had always been in awe of the Fountinus family and was glad that the bloodline had not in fact died out, but was very much still alive in Hermione.

"I'm related to the Mungos?" Hermione asked and Lily nodded.

"As well as a family of researchers and spell makers and two dark sorcerers. Your bloodline is a thing to be proud of, though I've always thought that one's personal accomplishments are worth more than whom you are related to by blood. It does explain your fondness for books to some degree and your caring nature. Magic remembers even though everyone and everything else forgets, magic remembers Hermione and it found you worthy." Lily smiled at Hermione who stared at the names in awe. "Its a lot to take in I know, to feel that you are deserving of your power, that you didn't steal it from anyone and to know it with certainty are two different things. I didn't know until I was able to see my lineage for myself and it's a lot to take in."

"Do you think I'll be a credit to them?" Hermione asked and Lily smiled.

"You can try to spend your life appeasing others, or hoping that you will make those that came before you proud, or you can do what you want and live your life on your own terms. I spent half my life appeasing others and it took being turned into a cat, for me to realize that the most important person to make happy was myself. That as long as I was making myself happy and doing the right thing, I would make others happy as well. Then of course by the time I realized this, I couldn't act on it, but I didn't give up hope, nor did I stop dreaming of the day when I would see my son again. When I would share with him all I had learned and could be with him once more." Lily said and smiled. "What do you dream about doing Hermione?"

"Ensuring that we live in harmony with magical beings and that all those that have magical ability are treated equally by this society." Hermione replied and Lily smiled.

"A very lofty goal indeed, I agree that we should treat magical creatures and beings better, however the House Elves rely upon wizards to remain healthy. They feed off of our magic when it builds to be to great and this exhausts even the more powerful wizards. After a feed the wizard that is being fed off can be tired for weeks or either months or it creates a bond between the master and the house elf. The house elf feeds off the wizard thereby weakening him, but they also serve the wizard they are bound to. Without the constant flow of power between a wizard and their elf, house elves can go mad, or get horribly sick and weak. They need to feed off magical energy in order to survive and once the High Fae left them behind in this world, they had no choice but to rely upon wizards for their survival. House Elves aren't just happy being servants, they need to serve it is a part of their biology quite literally. Enslavement in the Muggle world was different than what the House Elves go through, they aren't slaves but rather servants."

"A very fine line between the two, I've heard about how some wizards treat their elves." Hermione said and Lily nodded.

"I agree with you there, it has turned from what was a sacred bond between master and servant, to something where the House Elves are treated very poorly by their masters. A house elf will do what is desired of it, regardless of if that desire is voiced or not. They feel the desires of their masters and act accordingly. That is why you seldom have to order a house elf it knows what you desire before you ask."

"They can read minds?" Draco Malfoy demanded and Lily nodded.

"Though it goes deeper than even that, a house elf serves its master, body, mind and soul. Their masters become like gods to them and you would never go against a god now would you Master Malfoy?"

"No, but the thought that..."

"They are in your head scares you? The thought that they long to fulfill your every whim frightens you? I doubt you minded before you knew the true nature of the bond between a house elf and its master."

"What about the school elves then?"

"They are bound to the school as a whole, they take small amounts of power from each of you each day and know your desires in a much more limited capacity than a house elf that serves only one family or one person, knows the desires of that family or person. They therefore know exactly what is needed and where they need to focus their attention at all times. This draining of power doesn't hurt the wizard and allows for the school to run smoothly. It took some convincing to have the elves we have at Hogwarts given over to the service of the school, but slowly certain families agreed to part with an elf or two in exchange for free tuition. After a while we realized that it was unfair to expect the less well off families to pay to educate their children and so decided to make schooling free for everyone at Hogwarts." Helga stated.

"We could have only created this school and maintained it for the last centuries with the help of the house elves. Every time something is noticed to be broken at Hogwarts, it is repaired within a few weeks at most. This is in large part to our faithful and helpful house elves that ensure that this school runs smoothly. Any desire that a student had would in some way be fulfilled and that way we ensured that everyone was well taken care of. Though you will inherit our personal elves, there are also those that belong to the school as a whole." Slytherin said and Lily stared at him in surprise. "You need only to show yourself at Gringotts to get into our vaults and we will guide you when necessary. Unfortunately manifesting as we have is quite draining and we must sleep again for a time, but if you have need of us, you need only call."

"Thank you." Lily said uncertain of what else to say, the founders of Hogwarts nodded to her before disappearing once more. Lily stared at where they had been for a moment, before realizing that it was mid afternoon and she was somehow exhausted. "I'm going to go lie down, I believe that the spirits of the Founding Fathers were in fact shades." Lily said and several pureblood children winced as did several members of the staff. Shades were powerful ghosts that took energy from the living to maintain their corporeal form. They were often ancient and were more powerful in life than most wizards. Shades inhabited a plane between the living world and the afterlife and could be called from the afterlife into the living world for a short time, but only by powerful wizards and witches. In the living world, they again had all the powers they did in life, but could only exist as long as the host's will and magic remained strong. Lily's magic must have started to become strained and that was why the Founders left once more.

Lily stood slowly rising to her feet and walking back to the hospital wing. Madam Pomphrey stared at her before shoving her onto a car and demanding, "What is it you've done this time?"

"Over extended my magic just a little bit." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey sighed, handing her several potions to drink.

"You shouldn't have to sleep considering the level of magical exhaustion, but I wouldn't suggest doing more spells than absolutely necessary and possibly having a lie down."

"I'd rather write the textbooks for my classes, if I grow too tired, you have my word that I will rest." Lily said and smiled at Madam Pomphrey before returning to working on writing her textbooks. She was nearly finished writing her textbook when Harry groaned.

"I'll be there soon Aunt Petunia." He mumbled.

"Harry its alright, your in the hospital wing, you don't have to do anything other than get better." Lily said and Harry groaned again.

"Head hurts, you aren't Madam Pomphrey, who are you."

"I'm your Mum Harry, I was transformed back into a human remember we went to lunch together." Lily reminded Harry and he smiled.

"Thought it was a dream, you are really back Mum, we can be a family now?" Harry asked and Lily ran a hand through Harry's hair.

"Of course, we never stopped being a family, you have been my heart since the moment you were born." Lily said and smiled softly. "I'm so sorry I couldn't figure out how to free myself from the spell until now, but now I'm free, I am looking forward to doing all the things I imagined doing with you. Brewing together and teaching you the magic I've learned and the traditions I follow. Spending holidays and birthdays together and being able to care for one another. I missed so much and not a hour went by that I didn't think of you."

"Really?" Harry asked and Lily smiled.

"Truly." She said and rang a bell, Madam Pomphrey came out of her office and smiled at Harry and Lily.

"He's woken up then?"

"Yes, though I think he has a headache." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey nodded, handing Harry a potion, which he downed.

"You will need to rest for the rest of the day, but after today, you should be able to go to classes, if you rest mind and not try to get up to all sorts of mischief." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily laughed at the scowl on Harry's face.

"James couldn't ever be still either." Lily said and grinned at Harry. "He hated being laid up in the hospital wing, or sitting down for too long even."

"Tell me more about Dad." Harry asked and Lily nodded, telling Harry stories about James as she went back to writing her textbook. She was midway through the second story when Harry started to snore once more. Lily smiled fondly, before she straitened the covers on the hospital bed and kissed Harry on his forehead.

"Pleasant dreams son." She said watching him sleep for a moment, before going back to her writing. It was Severus that broke her concentration next, she cast a hasty muffling charm over Harry's bed as Severus started moaning in his sleep.

"No not Lily, take me instead, not Lily! Please." He begged before drifting back into incoherent muttering. Lily walked over to his beside and cast a body bind charm on him. "Lily no please, you can't be dead, and you can't be."

"Severus I'm not dead, you are having a nightmare." Lily said and shook his shoulder forcefully trying to get him to wake up, Severus was a sound sleeper and had always been hard to wake. Now that he was exhausted Lily found it to be impossible, instead she started to sing. "Don't want a four leaf clover  
don't want an old horse shoe. Want your kiss 'cause I just can't miss with a good luck charm like you." She sang the first song that came into her head and smiled as Severus relaxed slightly back against the pillows and sighed softly. Lily gently ran her hands through his hair, it was caked in Slickeasy's to prevent it from being harmed while Severus worked on his potions. She scarified it and smiled as Severus' hair became the thick silky mass she remembered.

"Come on and be my little good luck charm. Uh-huh huh, you sweet delight. I want a good luck charm a-hanging on my arm to have, to have, to hold, to hold tonight." Lily smiled softly as Severus stopped moaning relaxing into a deeper sleep. Somehow Severus had always responded to her, even in sleep it was as though he heard her. Lily had felt the same connection with him, but sometimes connection and friendship weren't enough to make a lasting relationship. She wondered sometimes what would have happened if she had chosen Severus instead of James. Would they have been happy? Would her life have been any better than what it had turned out to be? Severus muttered in his sleep, his brows crinkling as he frowned and Lily returned to stroking back his hair and singing.

Don't want a silver dollar. Rabbit's foot on a string. The happiness in your warm caress, No rabbit's foot can bring." She smiled softly at Severus who relaxed again at the sound of her voice and continued to sing the song she remembered from her childhood. They had sung it to each other more times then she could count when they had been young. They had loved that the word charm was in the song, being young spell casters. Severus' mother hadn't been allowed to play wizard music and muggle music had very little by way of magic, other than songs of love and Severus had protested that those were too yucky, as a small boy..

"Come on and be my little good luck charm. Uh-huh huh, you sweet delight I want a good luck charm a-hanging on my arm to have, to have, to hold, to hold tonight." She smiled softly as Severus' frown eased slightly.

"Lily." He muttered.

"I'm right here Severus, I'll be here when you wake up." Lily said and smiled down at him, before continuing the song.

"If I found a lucky penny I'd toss it across the bay your love is worth all the gold on earth No wonder that I say," She smiled as Severus started to snore once more and gently moved her hand from his forehead.

Come on and be my little good luck charm, Uh-huh huh, you sweet delight, I want a good luck charm-hanging on my arm. To have, to have, to hold, to hold tonight." She finished singing and hesitated a moment, before casting a spell over both of them, she stared at the golden blaze in astonishment, while Harry glowed the silvery gold color that the children of those with strong magical bonds possessed. Long ago both she and Severus would have been members of the same coven and would have shared their power between themselves and the other members in the coven. She had learned how to draw magical power and how to send it back once she finished her working and she knew that her magic in part came from other members of the coven, including James. She could still feel his magical energy fueling her and knew that although he was gone, his power lived on in her and Harry. Harry and she could share magical power, but for the most part she would be giving him her power and not the other way round. Harry's power was the swirling mix of a wizard that hadn't learned how to keep and maintain their power and when to give and take it from others. Lily had been sending what she could to Harry through the bond they shared, but her reserves were taxed as it was. Still she hadn't thought that Severus was a magical match for her, until that moment. She could feel his power filling her now and she realized that was in part the reason why Severus was taking so long to recover. Unfortunately there was only the visible spell, which showed magical compatibility, no one had considered making one more elaborate than that. Lily knew that there was at least three further magic users with who she was magically compatible, but she had no idea where they were, or indeed who they were. That was a problem for another day, now she simply drew on their power and siphoned it from them into Severus, until she couldn't take anymore and allowed the connection to become as it had been once more. Severus' magic swirled with slightly different colors and Lily saw how color had returned to his cheeks. She smiled softly and then looked on the clock on the wall, realizing that it was close to lunchtime.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

She packed away her ink and books, before heading down to the Great Hall. She intoned the spell that would allow for her to see her son's magical matches before she went and stared in horrified shock at Draco Malfoy, who was filled with a golden light that clearly showed he was a match for her son. Hermione blazed just as brightly, she was pleased to discover, as did Neville Longbottom, Theodore Nott and a girl at the Ravenclaw table. There were other students who were golden silver, rather than the pure and deeper gold created by stronger magical alignment. It wasn't the fact that Harry was attuned to Draco, which alarmed her, it was the fact that their magic and the other children's power were indistinguishable from one another. Wizards drew on the magical cores of their magical matches instinctually until they learned not to do so, but she had no idea of where one child's magic started and another's ended. She herself had had talents as a young girl that she had learned to focus in time and through her studies, she had determined what power belonged to her and what was other's magical energies. She attempted to draw on the power of those other magic users as seldom as possible, but sometimes when performing a greater working it was necessary. More over it was often the case that if a child was a magical match, so too were their parents. There were some exceptions and some cases where wizards married less strong magical matches in the old days, to ensure the health of their children's offspring. However considering the animosity she felt towards Lucius Malfoy and the feud between the Malfoy and the Weasley's, all their children and Hermione would have to be taught how not to siphon from one another as soon as possible. In addition to which she would have to discuss the matter with the unknown's child's father and with whomever else her magic was compatible. Schedules would have to be worked out between herself and her darker counterparts, so the balance in their power could be maintained. The use of too much dark or light magic could corrupt the core and although those that were strongly aligned in one direction or another seldom became friends, in the far distant past they had been able to make a truce at least. Lily had very little hope of that happening between these children and the families that were involved.

"Oh dear." Lily stated and dropped the magical connection. "Unfortunately I'm afraid that the following children will have to come with me and we will have to fire call your parents." She said and recited off the names, Malfoy and Nott looked shocked, but obeyed her when she threatened to take points if they didn't come with her and Luna seemed to handle it best of all. Lily drew power and nodded, seeing the magic leave the cores of the younger wizards and come to her, she only took a small amount, enough to test her theory only. She would have to teach magical shielding and sharing to these children and possibly their parents first, before moving onto other families. They would however have to share their power, or else they would be able to accomplish very little. They could accomplish far more by willingly sharing in rites and rituals and everyday life, rather than forcefully drawing power.

"What's this about Professor Potter?" Luna asked and smiled dreamily, she was no doubt the enchanter for Harry's coven, or what might become Harry's coven. Enchanters always had their head in the clouds and sometimes had to be reminded to eat, if they became enraptured by their workings, or dreams. Lily herself had an infinity for magics that had typically been ascribed to enchanters and those that had been typical of warlocks.

"You lot are magically compatible, which means I will have to speak with your parents immediately and see about training you into at least being able to maintain a somewhat decent control over your magics. If this is what most of the magical population is like, its no wonder that magical strength is slowly declining as it has been for the last few hundred years. The way you are sharing power is unhealthy."

"How do you know and what's this about power sharing?" Draco asked and Lily sighed.

"Typically a coven has a balance between what was later classified as light magic and dark magic, however everyone but Luna seems to either be afraid of becoming dark or dismissive of lighter magics, to the point where their magic is unbalanced. Unbalanced magic leads to all kinds of problems, including magical accidents and maladies of the mind in extreme cases. If magic is unbalanced it is harder to get well after becoming sick, or recover from magical strain. I've been pouring power into Severus and Harry, as they are part of our coven I expect, but that will only do so much good, if I take what they need by force."

"So you need us to give Harry some of our magic, how do we do that?" The girl with the far off look in her eyes spoke and Lily smiled.

"Harry and Severus will be fine, but the next time someone over exerts themselves, we need to be prepared and assist their working, otherwise it will take them much longer to recover."

"Why should I care about Potter?" Malfoy demanded and Lily sighed.

"Because if you and Nott only power share, the balance will be disturbed, you are supposed to be the sorcerers for this coven, as the others are supposed to be the warlocks, healers and enchanters. If you ever wish to be able to do more than dark spells and potions, you will have to share your magic with the others, as they will have to with you."

"How do you know..."

"Because its part of your magic, its not a good thing, or a bad thing it simply is. You are a dark wizard, just as I'm a grey wizard and she's a light wizard, you can't help your magical core, however by power sharing you maintain the balance better and can do more powerful spells. You've gotten as far as you have, by forcefully taking power from each other and that has left your cores in a twisted tangle. Mine was just as bad when I first started maintaining my core, it took the first year to straighten everything out, but I was working on my own and I had to take power in such a way that wouldn't damage those who I shared my magic with."

"Magic isn't shared!" Draco Malfoy protested. "Your power is your own."

"That's where you are wrong boy, had you studied the ancient knowledge and seen what books I have, you would have discovered this truth for yourself. Don't think that simply because you are Pureblood that you know everything there is to know about magic. You are so far from what the ancients knew of magic and think yourself superior because you grew up in a culture that had been established through conquest and not through true power."

"What would you know of it, you're a mudblood!" Draco Malfoy said and Lily took his power all of it at once and he sagged to the ground, pale and shaking.

"How else did I take your magic?" Lily demanded and Draco stared at her terrified. "We share a connection regardless of what you may think of me, you don't have to like it, you just have to accept it."

"What did you do to me?"

"I took your magic." Lily stated. "I could just as easily take the magic of the rest of you, you need to learn how to protect yourselves from this and you need to learn how to channel power. I didn't realize how bad it has gotten." Lily stated. "May I take magic from the rest of you and redistribute it, without learning how to control your power, you will keep taking magic from each other, until one of you breaks from the strain of it, but if you do not desire to learn how to maintain a balance of power that is your affair."

"Balance of power?" Hermione asked and Lily saw her start to pull on some of the dark magic and smiled.

"Indeed to everything there is a balance, the power shifts between you, if you truly wish to have only your magic it will be hard to determine how to separate it. Once I separate it, I can redistribute it between you, but I fear that some things you were previously able to do, you won't be able to anymore."

"Like what?"

"It depends upon your magical affinity, however such magical binding can lead to mental instability, shortened lifespan and decreased magical ability."

"What do you do then?" Nott demanded and Lily smiled, showing them her core, it swirled with different colors of gold, but mainly it was the warm gold of her own power.

"You see it as gold, where others with different affinities would see it as the color of their own magical affinity to me." Lily stated, before giving back the power she had taken from Draco. "I have been maintaining my own magic and taking and giving in order to keep myself and my magical matches healthy since I learned of the nature of my power." Lily stated and smiled. "The power you claim as your own Draco is in fact borrowed from many different people, in addition to your own magic, I would not have been able to take it as easily as I could if that was not the case." Lily stated, before rounding up the power she felt attuned to Draco's magical core and taking and giving until he had only his magic, she then bound it to him, so that it wouldn't escape and he couldn't draw on the magic of others in his coven. She then showed him his magical core. "It will not function as you expect like this, it seems that naturally you have an affinity for little besides potions and levitating magics." Lily stated and then did the same for each of the others. "Now see how your core is one color, there are several other spells that inform me of what you personally gifted at and I used that information to properly separate out the magic, as well as feeding magic to Harry and Severus."

"You are feeding magic? How are you doing that? What do you mean by feeding magic?" Hermione asked.

"Do a spell." Lily stated. "I would suggest a simple transfiguration." Lily added and Hermione obeyed, everyone stared as a small amount of magic flowed from her into the item she was casting her spell on and her quill changed into a pen. "Very good, you are gifted in transforming magics and transmutation. No one would be able to get anywhere without your power, quite literally."

"And me?" Luna asked and Lily smiled.

"You dear girl are a seer and what was once known as a scribe. My own power developed towards offensive and scribe related spells, partly do to being in an environment I instinctually found to be hostile for so long."

"Developed?" Ron asked and Lily nodded.

"If you hold onto magic long enough, it becomes part of your core, regardless of what you originally had an affinity for." Lily stated. "I would suggest mixing your power, fewer cauldrons will blow up that way and fewer transfiguration disasters will happen."

""What about me?" Neville asked and Lily frowned.

"You were using all your power to attempt to heal someone else, I have taken over supplying them with power."

"My parents?"

"I would assume so, but I cannot be sure, without first looking at their magical cores." Lily stated. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened, their minds might in fact be broken, so you shouldn't expect that I will be able to heal them. There is only so much magical sharing to do, but if we have an aligned core, I will attempt to assist them."

"Mum would be happy to help, if your cores are aligned or whatever." Ron said and Lily smiled.

"Unfortunately we would need to reform the coven and I might only be able to heal one of Neville's parents, if I could heal either of them. I know only what information I could find on the subject and it was very hard to discover the three books I could find."

"What books, where were they?" Pansy Parkinson demanded and Lily sighed.

"You need to come up with a filing system beyond sticking your books wherever there is a free space, I read about half your library and I kept finding potions books next to transfiguration texts and many other things besides. At least the library at Hogwarts has some order to it, its clear that I'll need to write a further book on magical core alignments, once I finish the more basic texts, but even my knowledge is woefully inept." Lily stated.

"I'd like to share with Neville, Ron and Harry." Hermione said. "You can give them some of my magic."

"You and Nev and can have some of mine." Ron said and Lily smiled at the children.

"I don't mind sharing with Hermione, or Ron or Harry." Neville stated and Lily opened the connection between them.

"Now I want you to think of what you want to do with your power, Neville has an affinity for healing and defensive magics, Ron has an affinity for defensive and tactical magics. Hermione has an affinity for scribe, transfiguration and transmutation magic."

"I would like to share my magic with the others as well, they could do with a bit of sight to guide their way, and I am our shaman am I not?"

"Indeed you are, did you see this?"

"Nothing so clear, I felt the nargles becoming agitated and I knew something important was to pass, but I did not know what. You said that I was most like the enchanters of old and they were typically shamans I remember that much from my lessons, although I thought the power sharing rituals our ancestors enjoyed were lost among the many other traditions which had been lost to the mists of time."

"Very few could complete a full circle, as they lacked the unity needed to maintain an open magical exchange. Magic senses hostility and power cannot be shared when emotions are in flux or a wizard denies another access to their magic, through the manipulation of their core." Lily stated.

"Manipulation?" Hermione asked and Lily nodded.

"A wizard's core is a fluid thing, see how my magics mix and intermingle? It is not meant to be stagnant and power is meant to flow between wizards."

"I still don't understand why Granger is part of this."

"She's related to the Mungo family though distantly and something in your magic calls to hers as much as you may dislike one another. Sometimes those with an affinity will feel powerful emotions towards one another. Those can be a strong attachment friendship or even love, or they can also be loathing. I no doubt will feel something similar when meeting your parents, we never got on and I believe a similar sentiment was transferred to you. Luckily I have enough dark power now on my own to prevent unbalance in whatever part of the coven wishes to remain together." Lily stated and smiled at the children. "I was wondering if I might use your floo powder McGonagall?"

"Of course dear, you know where my quarters are, do you not?"

"I do." Lily replied and took the children to McGonagall's office. As to not be accused of playing favorites she asked Draco for the floo address of his mother first and smiled when she saw the witch in question.

"Mrs. Potter what are you doing in my fireplace?" Mrs. Malfoy demanded.

"There is a somewhat urgent matter that requires your attention, if something involved my son, I would wish to be informed and I'm extending you that curtsy as a fellow parent if nothing else." Lily stated and Mrs. Malfoy nodded.

"Has he been hurt?"

"Not as such, thought there is some sensitive information that it would be better to tell you in private before it leaks to the papers." Lily stated and smiled at Mrs. Malfoy.

"Indeed I shall get Lucius and come at once, thank you Mrs. Potter for informing us." Mrs. Malfoy said and Lily nodded, disconnecting the floo.

"That was almost civil." Hermione stated. "I didn't know they had that in them."

"People are willing to do many things for their children, that they would not do normally Mrs. Granger and I would thank you to not insult Mr. Malfoy's parents." Lily said stiffly and Hermione blushed. Lily fire called Mrs. Weasley next and smiled at her. "Hello Mrs. Weasley, could you come to Hogwarts, something happened that would be better discussed in the castle."

"Of course, I'll get Arthur and we'll go immediately, is Ron alright?"

"He is fine Mrs. Weasley, but this is something better discussed in private. Come to McGonagall's office bring Mr. Weasley and please be civil."

"I do not see why a matter between our children would require civility."

"Because there are other children and other families involved, we should not be fighting in front of our children." Lily stated and Mrs. Weasley nodded.

"I'll come and I'll bring Arthur." The other conversations she had with the other children's parents continued in much the same manner, until all had agreed to meet.

"Come along children and lets meet your caregivers and parents. I will inform yours Hermione of what is happening by telephone after we are done meeting, although I doubt they will fully understand. My parents were proud of me but they never truly understood me."

"Didn't someone once say that parents seldom understand their children truly?" Hermione said and Lily nodded.

"Indeed, now come lets meet your families." Lily stated and cast a shield charm over the children as she reached the apparition point, not to her surprise wands had already been drawn.

"What is the meaning of this!" Mr. Malfoy demanded when he saw Lily and the other children. "Why did you take me out of work in order to stand waiting with this...with this..."

"I believe the word you are looking for is blood traitor, you might as well say it Mr. Malfoy." Mr. Weasley said and glared back at Mr. Malfoy. "Just because I have no desire to stand naked under the light of the full moon and do rituals that don't do one ounce of good, doesn't mean I'm betraying my family or my magic." Mr. Weasley stated. "Now what is this about?"

"This." Lily stated and showed them her magic and the children's as well as her own. They stared at her, their faces running from puzzlement to anger, to displeasure.

"What are we looking at?"

"Our children's magic and our own."

"Impossible such spells were lost centuries ago!" Mr. Malfoy said and Lily smiled at him, a predatory smile.

"Mr. Malfoy I had five years to do nothing but read in a library of a pureblood witch whom you held in high regard, if you think that I as the brightest person in my year could not manage to find a few things while I was reading, you are sorely mistaken. As for you Mr. Weasley, the ancient rights do work, not as well as they used to when people knew how to do them properly, but they work all the same. By the time I had figured out what had gone wrong with my coven's magic, three people had died and two were near death themselves. Forgive me for not wanting the same for my child!"

"What about Draco, why is his core like that and the other children's brighter and more fluid?" Mrs. Malfoy demanded.

"Because they are children and young Mr. Malfoy desired to keep his power separate from the other children's, he won't be able to do much magic and will slowly sicken if he continues to decide to horde his power and not let it flow between them. That's what happened to us, that and the war."

"What do you mean?" Mr. Nott demanded drawing his wand and Lily responded in kind.

"Simply that we studied certain magic to the exclusion of other power." Lily stated and smiled as Severus and Harry walked to the apparition point. "You should be resting."

"Madam Pomphrey gave me and Harry a clean bill of health." Severus stated. "I heard that you had decided to call the parents of those children in Harry's coven, if I am to understand what was said correctly."

"Indeed you understood correctly." Lily said and smiled at him. "Thank you for bringing Harry."

"What's going on Mum?"

"Harry this is your coven, for some reason that I don't even understand, you are supposed to share power and if you don't bad things happen."

"What bad things, what could be worse than what my life is already?" Harry demanded and Lily sighed.

"You could loose someone you love, to death or madness, you could loose control of your power and kill yourself. Many things can happen to a wizard with unsettled bonds, it's a wonder that the population survived as long as it did without grounding."

"Grounding?" Harry asked and Lily nodded, drawing magic from the adults around her.

"Magic does this to some extent, but no one can be entirely just one thing." Lily stated, sending the power back, filtering it through her magic and smiling at the looks of awe on the faces of the adults and the children who were looking between her and her parents. "If the Malfoy and Mr. Nott wish to abstain from our coven, we would still be able to be fairly balanced, but they would become unbalanced."

"Did you do something to my wife?" Mr. Nott demanded and Lily shook her head.

"No, I am uncertain of how she died, but she was already dead by the time I learned to access the magical connection that runs between us."

"Could you help my son and daughter in law?"

"I don't know for certain, for now I am simply feeding them magic, there are certain rituals that could be tried however. I read about some amazing healings being practiced when covens were involved." Lily stated. "However I can't make any promises and the ritual requires the full participation of the coven and I doubt we have that at this time." Lily stated.

"What is your role then, in the coven?" Mr. Weasley asked and Lily smiled at him.

"I've taken on more roles than were originally intended, because our coven has fractured." Lily stated. "No one else knew how to make the magic flow correctly, or send magic to those in the coven that needed it when they did. No one else knew how to assist in healing when someone was hurt, or to ensure the magical flow between individuals was stable."

"So you essentially do the work of ten people?" Mrs. Longbottom asked and Lily nodded.

"Indeed, it doesn't put a strain on my magic because I draw from others as needed, but I constantly have to be vigilant and make sure that the balance of power is maintained."

"And if we desire not to be in your coven, or to not give our magic to you and entrust you with our power?" Lucius Malfoy demanded.

"That is your affair, though I would suggest finding someone that you are willing to transfer power between, otherwise you might fall ill or suffer from magical maladies more easily. In addition to which, your power levels sharing between three wizards would be nowhere near as great, as if we all shared power amongst us. We don't have to be friends in order to share power, the four founders of Hogwarts were an example of how you don't have to like a person in order to share power with them. However there have been those that filter power through their magical cores and then distribute the power between those that do not wish to share with one or more members of their coven, but do not wish for their magic to become stagnant. As it is I'm the only one controlling the power flow, which puts consider strain on my reserves of energy. I would much prefer it if you would assist me in maintaining a healthy bond, but ultimately what you wish to do with your magic is your choice." Lily stated.

"I'll share with you Lily." Severus said and smiled at her, she returned the smile and nodded.

"Thank you Severus, I can assume that you and Mr. Weasley will wish to share your power, as will Mr. Malfoy and Mrs. Malfoy."

"Can I share with you as well?" Mr. Nott asked. "I do not wish to impose myself upon Mr. Malfoy." He added and Lily nodded.

"Though I will prevent you from attempting to damage us through the connection, all you would actually manage would be to cause your own demise. A magical core connection does not respond well to malicious intent."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply that the magic wishes to be shared, we could still of course curse each other, until we are blue in the face, but we couldn't actually harm one another, the bond won't allow for more than the sort of curses school children use." Lily said and pulled out her wand. "Caecus Maximus." Lily intoned firing the curse at Severus and watching as it harmlessly disappointed. "There you see, I can't harm him, nor could I truly harm any of you." Lily stated.

"Can you harm Draco?" Mr. Malfoy asked and Lily shook her head.

"His magic and yours are entertained, I cannot harm your son, any more than you would be able to harm mine." Lily stated and Lucius Malfoy frowned.

"So we can't curse each other and would hurt our magic if we don't agree to join with you? This sounds entirely too familiar to me and you are not offering anything in return for my binding myself to you."

"You are already bound to me, as I am to you, we can block that connection but we cannot sever it Mr. Malfoy." Lily stated. "You still wish to share with Mrs. Malfoy and your son?" Lily asked and Mr. Malfoy nodded, Lily did as he wanted and bound their magic to them, taking back all power that wasn't theirs to control. "I doubt you will be able to apparated or do much of what you are accustomed to doing, but if this is the way you want things, far be it from me to get in the way of your wishes. I am not the Dark Lord Mr. Malfoy, I do not appreciate being compared to him, all I truly wish is to help maintain our magics and I would have taught you to control what power you received and how, as I will teach Mr. Nott." Lily stated and sighed. "Far be it from me to force someone to do what they don't wish to do." She added and Mr. Malfoy frowned, before pulling out his wand. "I suggest you go back through the Hogshead floo gate, otherwise you will splinch yourself, as Mr. Lovegood is the one who is good at transmutation magics and you can't force your magic to be something other than what it is at its core. I guided my magic so I could become a grey witch and Severus did much the same, but that takes years of study, years you don't have. Enjoy the walk, you will be doing a lot of walking from now on." Lily stated and Draco looked between his parents and Lily.

"What have you done to our magic?"

"Bound it to the three of you as you asked, your magic is skilled towards glamour's, the mental arts and offensive magics, however I doubt you will be able to do many every day spells."

"How did this happen?" Lucius demanded. "Why can't we do every day spells?"

"Because you didn't train your magic to do them, they are something you consider to be an after thought and not a focus, unlike Mrs. Weasley who's very skilled with the sort of magics necessary to run a household, in addition to healing magic. I only found out about magical cores eleven years ago and I didn't think it right to influence your magic."

"Then what do you consider this to be?"

"I consider it to be doing what you want, if you wish to remain with us and become an equal part of this coven, you are more than welcome to do so. If however you wish to leave like arrant children, only to come back when you decide that you can't function with only the magic of your family, you can sod off." Lily stated. "I'm not going to be working with you every few days when you have a fit of peak and decide that you function better on your own. We need to decide how the power is split between us and we need to come up with a schedule."

"A schedule?" Mr. Malfoy demanded and Lily nodded.

"Indeed I refuse to allow what happened to Luna's Mother happen again, I was attempting to break my curse when Luna's mother decided to create a spell, we were both drawing very heavily on the magic that was shared between us, I realized what was happening and tried to shove power towards her dropping my spell, but I hadn't fully learned how to control the transfer of power and I had no idea at that time how to do magical shielding through shared cores." Lily stated. "I do not know if it was ultimately the result of the spell failing, the stretching of our magical energies, or the distraction of having that power thrust into her suddenly that ultimately lead to her death, but the result was that she died and I'll never be certain if I wasn't in some way responsible."

"You weren't responsible, it was a flaw in her calculations, she kept records and I found her spell work and took it to another spell maker to discover what went wrong, it was not your fault." Mr. Lovegood stated and Hermione nodded.

"Powerful workings can be done, with the willing participation of those that share magical cores. Severus and I have classes to teach and the rest of you have jobs to do, so I would suggest that we leave any taxing workings until Saturday and come up with a rotating schedule. I would also like all of us to meet up on Sunday to work on strengthening exercises that is if everyone agrees to form a coven with equal power sharing?" Lily asked and the others all nodded. "And you boys?"

"We'll share with the others." Draco said glaring at Harry. "I can't promise I'll like them though."

"You don't have to like one another, though it would go more smoothly if you did. Much like Arthur and Lucius you and Ron are the lightest and the darkest magic users in your coven."

"Is it always like this in families?" Ron asked.

"Usually at least one child, will form a coven with another child that was in their parent's coven. However some belong to other covens, it depends more on the balance of a wizard's power and who they are as a person. Wizards are given to certain traits, but that doesn't mean that's all they are, if that makes any sense. As to why magic functions in this manner, I haven't the foggiest no book I have come across mentions why it is. Only that it is. They refer to this connection in many ways, soul bonding, spirit sharing, essence giving, but it all amounts to the same thing. I feel that the natural spirits in the world influence us as much as we influence them and the world does everything it can to maintain the balance. We are all powerful wizards and witches in our own right and that strength and power was recognized in us and some force determined that our magic would align. As to why this happens, some call this force god, or the spirit of nature, evolution, or even beings from another planet, I don't know where it comes from truly but I believe that we are supposed to be guardians of this earth, as the ancient wizards believed." Lily stated and everyone stared at her in shock.

"So you believe in the old ways? Truly, its not some sort of PR stunt?" Mr. Nott demanded and Lily nodded.

"Not that I would expect any of you to, you are free to believe what you wish, however we will be using ritual methods in order to maintain balance in our core. I suggest we find a quiet spot and I'll guide you through a meditation." Lily stated. "I would suggest using the come and go room." She added.

"Wherever you wish to go is fine with me." Mr. Lovegood said and Lily nodded, she lead them back to the castle and to the room of requirement. She smiled as she smelt the incense and saw the pillows, she sat down cross-legged on one of the star points. "The children should sit in the middle at first, make yourselves comfortable, but not so comfortable as to go to sleep." Lily instructed and the children obeyed her, she smiled guiding them to each spot and then doing the same with the adults.

"Now I want you to take deep breaths in and out, feel your body and think of spreading your power from your feet to the top of your head. Starting with your feet, I want you to imagine a warm soothing light slowly spreading upwards through your body. In time you will be able to manifest this light, but don't expect to right away." Lily instructed and continued to instruct them until she felt the bond change slightly, it was more attentive and relaxed at the same time, the power waiting to be used. Lily took a deep breath in and out before she began to speak again. "We will start with Mrs. Weasley, as Earth she is our primary anchor. I want you to channel your power towards her and Ron and Mrs. Weasley and Ron I want you to take that power and send it back out. As we are doing this for the first time, I will guide the channeling, but I believe that you will be able to do this yourselves in time." Lily stated and sent the power towards Mrs. Weasley and Ron, who sent it back out into the circle, she did this for a while, before she noticed how Mrs. Weasley was starting to draw the power in and send it back out on her own, though Ron still relied upon her help. "We will now continue to the point between air and earth, Mr. Weasley and young Mr. Nott, I want you to try to send the power out, while the others and I send it to you." Lily stated and continued to work with the power, until she felt that Mr. Weasley gained some grasp of the technique.

"Now we will move onto air and Mr. Lovegood and Luna, do as you have been doing." Lily said and smiled when she realized she hardly had to assist the power sharing at all this time, the others were doing it naturally and the power was being spread evenly. "Now on to the space between air and fire and Mrs. Malfoy and young Mr. Malfoy." Lily said and smiled as she felt the core start to thrum. "Do not be alarmed, the first half of this power sharing warms it up, the second half cools it down so to speak and now it is time to transition to fire. Mr. Malfoy you and Neville will channel this element." Lily stated and felt the magic crackle full of energy, she then moved onto fire and water, guiding Hermione through the ritualistic sharing, before moving onto Snape, it made sense to have him represent water his nature sometimes forceful and other times soothing just seemed to align with the element for Lily. She then finally moved onto water and earth and used those elements to center her magic and Harry's.

When they were finished Lily felt energized and whole for the first time in her life, she couldn't escape the feeling that this was how it was supposed to be. "I aligned you in some regard according to your natures and some regard to what you needed. You can of course take another point up on the compass, but the energy that was sent to you carried the image of your element with it. If you feel more attuned with another element that too is fine, simply inform me and I will adjust this ritual accordingly."

"I don't feel like fire, but my magic feels stronger than usual."

"The use of the elements was to evoke a clear picture to draw on, in everyone's minds. However what we did wouldn't truly be considered a ritual."

"Do you wish to practice sky clad rituals?" Lucius asked and Lily shrugged.

"I wouldn't be apposed, but I feel that we should first get more accustomed to power sharing and do less potent rituals at first. I don't think Harry is quite ready to take part in a sky clad ritual, mostly those were done after seventeen do to the amount of power that they required." Lily said and Lucius nodded. "I would not be averse to it, but first I want to perform a healing ritual and attempt to help Neville's parents. That way if we can return them to themselves, we can have more people to take part in the ritual."

"What ritual would you want us to do?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"A fertility rite and the blessing of a pregnancy, we have long wanted a second child and although there is nothing magically wrong with either of us, we cannot conceive. We have tried every potion on the market and still have been unable to have another child. Draco's birth was difficult but not so difficult that we were told not to attempt to have another child, no one knows why we have been unable to."

"Have you thought of using muggle methods?" Hermione asked and everyone stared at her in shock. "There was a girl born in Australia using test tubes and cutting edge science, she was grown in a lab and then put into her mother's stomach. My Dad told me about it when I asked too many questions about where babies came from, its becoming more common now for people who can't conceive easily."

"I would rather attempt magical means and fairly soon, we only have about ten more years to attempt to have children." Lucius stated and Lily frowned.

"I couldn't promise that the ritual would work, I was surprised at how well this ritual worked."

"We cannot help but hope, but we know better than to expect the ritual to work by now." Mr. Malfoy said and Lily nodded.

"As long as you don't hold us responsible if it fails." Lily said and smiled at Neville's Gran who had been watching them.

"You are going to try to help Frank and Alice first though?"

"Yes though I believe we should wait until winter break, that will allow us the time we need to recover. Fertility rituals are best preformed in spring at any rate."

"I have heard much the same, but why wait, we should be able to do the ritual on Friday afternoon and recover by Sunday." Severus said and Lily shook her head.

"We need time to strengthen our bond and we may need to draw slightly upon the children's magic as well. We need to prepare and train for this, to research where it might go wrong and how to perform the ritual correctly."

"Once a know it all, always a know it all." Narcissia smirked. "Don't expect Miss Granger to mellow with age."

"At least I had something between my ears as a child, you were always simpering over some stupid boy or other."

"We cannot all have your luck when it comes to men. I am fortunate in that our parents arranged a marriage, otherwise Lucius might never have noticed me."

"I have no desire to be stared at and fought over, I was content to simply sit by the lake with Severus and study together, or later to read in the library. If James hadn't been so persistent that he annoyed me into agreeing to go out with him, I don't think we ever would have dated. I was surprised when that first date actually was fun and agreed to a second, with the stipulation that our studies would always come first. There is nothing wrong with being intelligent and fond of reading, if I wasn't we wouldn't be here would we."

"Indeed not, would you like to come to the manor this weekend, Severus you can come as well if you like."

"I would enjoy that, we have not talked in a while. I have things of my own that I could research." Severus stated.

"I would like to see your library, but I wouldn't be able to read very much in a day."

"Indeed not, you can come any weekend you wish." Mr. Malfoy said. "Simply floo us ahead of time, though I must admit that there isn't much of a filing system. Several attempts have been made over the centuries, but our library contains several thousand books and it's near impossible to catalog everything."

"I don't mind sorting through books and I know how to handle most books, even those that have security spells placed upon them. Thank you for allowing me access to your library."

"Of course." Mr. Malfoy said and Lily smiled at him, she didn't trust Lucius Malfoy as far as she could throw him, but she'd be nice in order to get her hands on his books. "Just could you tell me if you find anything worth reading."

"Of course, I believe knowledge is meant to be shared." Lily said and smiled. "Though I do believe that it is time for dinner in the Great Hall, we could go to Hogsmeade for dinner but first we would need permission from the Headmistress to take our sons and daughter from school."

"A better idea would be simply to ask the House elves to spare some of the food. I don't want to dine with the students, it might unsettle them slightly to have us at the table. Usually once you drop the children off at the train station you don't see them for the rest of the year and I don't want to disrupt them." Mrs. Weasley said

"Everyone would love to see you Mum, we miss you." Ron said and Mrs. Weasley shield's

"Thank you dear, but it would be better if we ate somewhere more private, the papers will no doubt report about you, but for now the rest of the family is safe from scrutiny a situation which might not last, once all this becomes common knowledge." Mrs. Weasley said and Lily sighed.

"I wish that for once the newspapers would tell the truth, it seems that they have been printing nothing but drivel for decades." Lily said and was surprised that she got everyone, including Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy to laugh.

"Indeed, but at least its equal opportunity drivel, if things are to be untrue, let them not be biased." Mr. Malfoy stated and Mr. Lovegood smiled.

"That's why I came up with the Quibbler, to poke fun at the news, though I also enjoy writing articles about magical creature research and new potion research, topics that I find lacking in the Daily Profit."

"It actually reminds me of the tabloids in the muggle world, made up gossip about famous people and little of substance. It truly surprises me that some view it as a reliable news source."

"For the most part I read Wizengamot notes to get my news, but you wouldn't believe the boring things you hear them talk about in there. There have been a good twenty attempts to revise laws on cauldron bottoms and no doubt there will be a good twenty more. All people need to do is stick with a reputable dealer, but people go looking for a deal on used cauldrons and wind up seriously injuring themselves or others. I always inspect the student's cauldrons and replace the ones not up to snuff out of my own paycheck, but I shouldn't have to do so. They could just as easily find a good cauldron at Jamble and Breksway's and be done with it." Severus sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. "The ministry seems to not know its ass from its head and people are entirely too busy sticking their heads up other's Asses in order to get anything done."

This time that comment got Mr. Malfoy laughing so hard that he nearly doubled over. "I missed you old friend, we should meet together more often."

"You know how busy I am once school is in session." Severus protested.

"That I do and I may be busy in the upcoming months as well." Mr. Malfoy said.

"How so?"

"You may have killed the Dark Lord, but don't believe that it means that this is over by any means. If we are to work as a coven, you must understand that my views aren't your own."

"I think you would be surprised on that score, however I don't see how killing people and maiming others will get us what is needed." Lily stated. "You need only look around you to see how the current laws regarding black magic are effecting the environment but that does not mean that we need to fight another war."

"And then what would you suggest, you can yell at people until you are blue in the face, but that doesn't mean that they will listen."

"Perhaps by showing them how we improve ourselves and demonstrating the old ways, people will discover that they aren't as bad as they think. Killing will only lead to more killing and bloodshed on both sides. Sooner rather than later our coven will be dissolved, do to us fighting among ourselves rather than assisting each other to grow stronger in magic together. Being in a coven was never easy, so many viewpoints always lead to conflict, but if the ancient wizards and witches managed it I don't see why we can't. People fear the old ways not because they are something to be feared, but because they don't understand them, don't understand the nature of magic. They don't understand that naturally there are always those wizards who have more of an affinity for dark magic over light. They seek to control the rituals and rites so that they can insure the safety of the population, but by not allowing those rites to be practiced, that magic to heal the earth, they endanger us all the more. Until we come to this point, where our planet is close to hitting a tipping point that not even magic can make it recover from. If we don't band together to fix what is wrong with the earth and soon, we may very well fight ourselves to extinction."

Everyone stared at her in silence. "I have my own grudges and my own painful memories, but continuing to fight one another isn't the answer, we can have peace and we will eventually be able to practice the rituals and rites again. I have sworn my own vows to not harm another unless I believe that they seek to harm me, I have sworn this upon my magic, as well as making vows to maintain the balance to the best of my ability and because of these vows, because of how the mother approves of me, I have five times the power of what is considered to be a normal witch. Living in harmony with the balance has brought me more peace, than the god I was raised with ever did. I can feel it when I release my power into the world, I can feel how my magical energy in some way affects the planet and how that helps to maintain the balance. When I sacrifice to assist the earth in healing, I too feel that power surge through me and out of me."

"How could you do rituals when you were a cat?" Mr. Malfoy demanded.

"There need be no spoken vow, there need only be open and honest feeling, you must truly mean what you offer of yourself to the balance, otherwise instead of healing you and giving you your rightful power, you will become blighted instead. Much of magic is about intention, I intended to share with all of you, the gifts I had been given myself and when I pull or give power that intention is heard and the power comes. If I intended to harm you, the power would not come to me, as it would not allow for me to harm members of my coven, even indirectly. You can catch mice and recite ritual words in your mind, before killing them, those small sacrifices had to do, until I was once again human."

"You sacrifice animals?" Mr. Weasley demanded and Lily nodded.

"To purify the earth, to allow more animals to be born in their place. A sacrifice allows for the earth to heal, which makes the grass trees and flowers grow richer and healthier in the area of the sacrifice. I would never do human sacrifice beyond myself as the only rituals that call for it require a lot of power and don't work as well as other rituals that accomplish the same thing. Though life exchanging rituals are not something that I believe myself to be beyond doing and James felt the same."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"James knew that we could not escape, babies cannot apparated and so he gave his life to save yours and my own. His sacrifice for me wasn't in fact necessary but it saved you, even though you received that scar."

"Dad died for me?" Harry demanded.

"Yes and his death was enough to save you, thank the stars, I too would have willingly died for you Harry, but Voldemort's had other plans." Lily stated.

"How did that work?"

"A ritual I found in the Potter Library, allowing parents to sacrifice themselves for their children. We knew what would happen to Harry, if we didn't afford him protection and we did what we had to protect our son." Lily stated and everyone stared at her. "Not a day goes by that I don't miss James, but I am so thankful to him, for what he did for our son and how he tried to protect us both."

"He died for you, for both of you and that's why Harry survived and the Dark Lord..."

"The Dark Lord was turned into a wraith, yes and that was why I was able to defeat him. He upset the balance and drove himself to madness with arcane dark rituals, which harm the very soul. He is not the man you wish to immolate Mr. Malfoy. It is one thing to be a dark wizard, the world needs dark wizards and dark magic, just as much as it needs light wizards and light magic. It is another thing entirely to upset the balance at every turn, to turn others to madness and to kill without remorse." Lily stated and frowned, searching with her magic and pulling out the geas that was on Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, they doubled over in pain as she ripped it away from them, and banished the dark magic from her. She then turned to Severus and frowned, he had two competing geas himself, she could not take away one, without affecting the other. "Don't think Dumbledore was a saint either, he made others believe that he was beyond reproach. I long ago discovered the geas he laid upon me and destroyed it, but yours still linger. Do you wish to be free of both geas placed upon you Severus?" Lily asked Severus. "You see how me taking the geas away from the Malfoy has affected them."

"What did you do to my parents?" Draco demanded his fists tightened into small balls.

"I freed them Draco, now their minds are their own again. Geas leach off of a wizard, the more the wizard or witch holds them in regard the more the geas makes them regard the witch or wizard, until they worship them much like the gods of old. Some gods were in fact wizards I believe." Lily stated and sent healing mind magic to the Malfoy. "When that geas is taken away, it is both physically and mentally painful, but your parents will respect those they do, because it is earned, not because they are forced to do so. Geas magic is repulsive and the weapon of those that wish to use others, while thinking nothing of the balance or those that they are using. Those that consider other wizards to be disposable are beyond contempt and I don't doubt that Dumbledore has used his position at the school to best advantage. Why else would students that loath him also hold him in such high regard?" Lily demanded, before casting a sleeping spell on both Malfoy, putting them into a deep healing sleep. "The longer a geas is in place, the more it leaches magic off of its host and the more the magic user comes to worship their oppressor." Lily sighed. "Do I have your permission to remove the geas that are on you? I should have done so with the Malfoy, but even I sometimes forget myself, I began to suspect the work of a geas while talking with them and once I discovered it I acted."

"I for one want this gone from me." Mr. Nott stated. "I wish to be able to make up my own mind on such things, as I thought I had been doing."

"Of course." Lily stated. "Might I borrow your magic, while you rest, it will make the healing go quicker.

"Of course and if there is anything on my son, you have my permission to remove it as well." Mr. Nott looked furious. "I took him before the Dark Lord as a baby, if that...If he did something to my son..."

"I will make sure that Theodore is well, though you will still be dark wizards, you will be able to make your own choices, rather than being ruled by the geas." Lily stated and Mr. Nott nodded, she took away his power then and removed the geas from him as well, putting him instantly into a healing sleep. "They should be fine by morning, do you wish me to check you for a geas Mr. Nott?" Lily asked and Theodore squared his shoulders before nodding.

"Yes, Mrs. Potter, that would be appreciated." Theodore said and held still his lip quivering slightly, which didn't surprise Lily, Theodore was only a child after all. She frowned when she saw the two geas he had, Dumbledore hadn't thought to look for other geas when he had placed his own. Then again she doubted any wizard that would use such a method of gaining power, cared over much for anyone other than himself or herself.

"You have two geas upon you, would you like me to remove them both?" Lily asked and Theodore nodded.

"Take my power as well, if you are to free all of us, it will be a large working won't it and I'll be asleep, so I won't feel being without it."

"Thank you Theodore but as a young wizard, you need what power you have in order to maintain and assist your magical core and body in growing." She took both geas and cast a sleeping spell upon Theodore. "Who's next?" One by one they allowed her to take the geas from her, Draco too had the competing geas placed upon him, it was sickening to Lily how someone could do that to a child. She finally finished and sat down on the cushioned floor roughly, feeling the effects of the power drain it had taken to take the geas from those that had been affected. Pillows moved up from the floor and blankets dropped from the ceiling, as Lily found a pillow and a blanket, which had appeared next to Harry and covered her with the blanket, before falling into an exhausted sleep.

 **AN**

 **It took a really long time to decide what I wanted to do with this fic. I deleted several drafts of this chapter and personal problems got in the way of my writing for a while. **Sorry for the wait and thank you for reading this fic and for the reviews.****


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Lily woke and groaned she hated magical exhaustion and this was horrible. She felt terrible, she curled against Harry a moment, her eyes drifting closed a moment, before they snapped open. She pulled on what little magical energy was left between their covens and sent off a patron's message to Pomphrey.

She then closed her eyes and fell back into sleep or unconsciousness. The next period of time was a blur of someone forcing potions to her lips and gently setting her body back down into blankets. She felt a cool cloth against her forehead and the power slowly return, she sent everything to the children first, magical exhaustion was most dangerous with those that were still developing their core.

After that she sent the power to the adults, equally pushing it from each of them and maintaining the balance. Broth was pressed against her lips and she sipped it slowly, continually maintaining the power flow between her and the others. She was used to having so much power to work with, but now there was so very little. She took what she needed to work the power but no more than that, she could easily enough pull on the power of the others if she needed more. She drifted before rebalancing the power flow and drifting back into sleep. She didn't know how long it was before a cup of broth was pressed to her lips and she decided that the coven was well enough for her to eat more than broth She opened her eyes, putting a hand over the cup. "Can I have a bacon sandwich and some tea?" She asked and Madam Pomphrey nearly dropped the cup in astonishment.

"Lily, you've been asleep for days and now you seem right as rain, this isn't natural." Madam Pomphrey said.

"Well actually it is in fact, I shared what power I had with my coven and now the balance is restored enough for me to take enough energy from them to have more than broth." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey eyes widened comically, Lily sighed. "Though I would really like that sandwich, its putting somewhat of a drain on the power reserves, how are the others?"

"Taking it easy, but they woke up a day ago, you mean to say you were conscious?"

"No, not most of the time, but I can draw on the power without being conscious, its harder when your asleep though. Instead of discussing how magic works, could I please have that sandwich now?"

"Of course dear." Madam Pomphrey said and a moment later she was given a large plate of sandwiches of all varieties, she devoured it hungrily, it tasted wonderful and she ate every last one, cleaning the plate and asking the House Elf for seconds and then thirds. She finished the third plate and relaxed back against the pillows, sending the energy and strength from the food across the bond, only keeping what she herself needed.

"Do you want any more, some tea perhaps, before you go back to sleep? Severus insisted on staying here with you and he'll be delighted to know that you woke up. He's asleep at the moment, he exhausted himself listing off potions for me to brew and instructing me on the proper ingredients." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily laughed.

"That does sound like Severus, his magical core seems fine, but we are all exhausted. Could you give me a journal?"

"Of course dear, its on the beside table, as well as the one you were writing, before you decided to do a power sharing."

"It was more than that, but sharing such is deeply personal and does not leave the coven." Lily said and smiled, as she continued writing, she was able to finish the other textbooks by the end of the day and instructed McGonagall to hand them to the students and allow them to study the ones for the classes they were enrolled in. She also assigned her first homework assignment, which was to give a cordial greeting to someone that the student intensely disliked and to reply in kind when you were greeted cordially, the instructions on cordial greetings were in the first book, if they didn't know the correct social graces to correctly do so. She also assigned a forty-eight inch scroll on the four greatest wizard values, of Loyalty, Honor, Intelligence and Ambition and what those values meant to the student. If they could source things she wanted them to, but if not they could simply write about how it had affected them personally. She then ate again and shoved the energy across the bond, to the others, falling back into unconsciousness.

She woke the next morning ravenous again and devoured the large stack of egg and bacon sandwiches that Madam Pomphrey had left on the bedside table. They were piping hot and delicious, she grinned when she saw that it was a special plate and tapped it twice, the plate refilled and she ate another three more plates, before she got up and put on her robe.

She yawned, frowning at the way her hair was starting to become matted; no one ever properly cared for her hair, when she couldn't do it herself. She found her trunk at the foot of her bed, got out a under dress and pantaloons, as well as what she needed to wash herself and care for her hair and went to woman's showers inside the hospital wing and the standard shampoo bottles, she would really need to get her own shampoo soon, or make some. She scrubbed her body clean, sitting on the cobblestone floor as she did so. She felt like soaking but decided to wait on that until her magical core strength was back to half its normal power. The rest of her coven was at two thirds of their normal strength, except for the children, who had recovered fully.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing?" Madam Pomphrey demanded. "Bed now!"

"I needed a shower and my hair was going to get badly matted." Lily said and sighed. "At any rate, I'm nearly at half strength so I should manage to wash myself if nothing else." She added.

"Magical exhaustion is not something to be trifled with, you could do permeate damage to your magical core..."

"I wasn't using magic, I simply turned on the tap and sat down I'm doing nothing other than washing myself."

"I didn't know where you were, Severus awoke in a panic."

"I'm fine, could you please go, I mean to say, I know your a healer and you've seen this before multiple times, but I'd prefer not to give you a show, if it can be avoided." Lily said and Madam Pomphrey blushed bright red, turning on her heel and walking to the door.

"I'll give you some privacy then." Madam Pomphrey said and Lily nodded.

"Thank you." She said and finished in the shower, drying off and putting on a clean blue under dress and pantaloons. She then walked from the bathroom, bundling her dirty things into the towel.

"YOU WILL NOT LEAVE YOUR BE AGAIN!" Severus shouted and Lily sighed.

"I'LL DO WHAT I DAM WELL PLEASE SEV, I WAS IN NO DANGER, ITS NOT LIKE BLOODY DEATH EATERS ARE GOING TO AMBUSH ME IN THE SHOWERS. HONESTLY IF I HAD FALLEN ON MY WAY, THE WORST THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WOULD BE THAT I SPRAINED MY ANKLE. I WAS WITHIN SHOUTING DISTANCE THE ENTIRE TIME AND YOU KNOW HOW LOUD I CAN BE!" Lily shouted back and glared at Severus. "I WAS GONE FOR MAYBE TWENTY MINUTES, NO NEED TO CAUSE A PANIC SEV."

"BUT YOU WERE GONE, I HAD NO IDEA WHERE YOU WERE."

"OH THE NEXT TIME I GET OUT OF BED, I'LL LEAVE A NOTE SHALL I, GONE TO THE LOO, KINDLY DON'T SEND MADAM POMPHREY AFTER ME! THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT I LIKE TO KEEP PRIVATE YOU KNOWN AND BEING NAKED IN THE SHOWER IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS." Lily stalked towards the bed, taking a good third of Severus' power and he gasped in astonishment. "I'VE BEEN GIVING ALL MY POWER TO EVERYONE FOR DAYS SEV, DON'T START SHIT WITH ME NOW, YOU WON'T BLOODY LIKE THE RESULTS." She then drew on the others power so she was back to full power and pulled on her dress. "I'M LEAVING NOW, BUT DON'T WORRY I WON'T CAST SPELLS UNLESS IT PROVES TO BE NESSASARY."

She then strode off sparks flying off of her; she didn't feel like lessening the power flow, not when she was this angry. She glared at the students that stared at her in the hall; she had no desire to deal with their petty little squabbles at the moment. Then Pansy Parkinson smiled at her and did a three quarter length curtsy, which was in fact the proper greeting for an elder and an instructor. "Good day Professor Potter."

"Good day Miss Parkinson." Lily said and did the proper curtsy in return.

"You seem rather out of sorts this morning, I was wondering why."

"Wizards Miss Parkinson, interfering wizards who believe I can't see to my bodily needs without having a healer sent in to gape at me while I'm bathing." Lily said and Pansy's eyes widened in astonishment. "It most probably wouldn't effected me so much, had I not been at a third my usual strength, now I'm back to full, but the others are down to about half." Lily said and shrugged. "It will be good to have someone else manage and maintain the balance, because it too is exhausting, if you're the only one doing it."

"I see." Pansy Parkinson said and Lily sighed.

"No you don't child, not until you learn how to power share yourself, but it's going to take a while before I'm willing to give everyone those lessons." Lily stated and Pansy Parkinson paled. "After all I'm an old warrior and I will defend those I consider to be my family to the last breathe in my body. I refuse to give someone more power when they aren't deserving of it."

"What do you consider to be deserving?"

"Well someone who doesn't curse those they dislike might be considered to be more deserving, than someone who fires off nasty spells without a second's thought." Lily replied and Parkinson blanched. "I wouldn't for example give any power to someone like Bellatrix Lestrange, but I suppose that's a poor example."

"You're frightening her." Marcus Flint said and Lily glared at him.

"She should be frightened, I doubt highly that Harry has ever been able to have a childhood and not live in fear." Lily replied. "The feeling of safety is a blessing that can not be given at this moment in time, considering that I just killed Voldemort's and I'm uncertain if you lot are going to leave well enough alone, or start all this bloody shit up again." Several of the children started crying. "I'm glad that you sent Miss Parkinson to approach me, I assure you that I won't use my magic unless attacked, but my magic is unpredictable at the moment, considering that I only have a quarter of my actual magic right now, when I'm used to having half of my power."

"Your only using a quarter of your magic, but your using the others magic instead? How does that work?"

"Power sharing Miss Parkinson, I can take from the ground or from other sources, but some people have the decency not to take things without permission." Lily said and turned on her heel, putting up the strongest shield she knew, her body rippled with blue energy, she drew the power for the spell from the castle. "I suggest you don't test me, you won't like the results and this is not cordial, you do not surround a woman who has had to fight since she was in seventh year all at once and expect it to go well. Good day Miss Parkinson, perhaps in future you might attempt something a bit more subtitle, I know you Slytherins are good at being subtitle if nothing else."

She stalked to the library and settled herself down into the chair, removing the shield and stacking a pile of books she hadn't read yet, using a spell that allowed her to absorb the knowledge they contained. She went through a hundred books by the time she felt tired, she had returned to half power and had learned some interesting spells.

She used another spell to place the books back where they belonged, smoothed out her skirts and stood. Reading always helped her to calm down and settled her magic, when it was being unpredictable. She had needed to burn off some of the extra power in any event and she needed to regain her own reserves, otherwise the coven wouldn't be balanced. She now had about half her own power left and a bit more than that gathered from the rest of the coven. She drew so she went up to seventy five percent of her normal reserves.

"That was astonishing, how did you read that much that quickly?" Miss Bradlegrace asked.

"Perhaps I will teach you that spell before graduation, knowledge is power Miss Bradlegrace and while there are some things I'm willing to share, certain spells I know I won't be sharing with anyone." Lily said and smiled. "There's a reason why black magic was outlawed, once you know a spell it's tempting to use it."

"I understand that."

"I know you do, however you have a strong sense of ethics, that is why you are the only one to receive personal instruction. You alone among your peers are worthy of it." Lily said and Miss Bradlegrace blushed.

"I wouldn't know about that."

"I would, some of those questions had no wrong answer, simply the best answer or what you deemed most accurate, and your responses were most satisfactory." Lily replied and smiled. "Do you plan to go into politics, or research, once you graduate?"

"I am not entirely sure, I was considering becoming a defender, and one of my Uncles was falsely imprisoned."

"Was he released?" Lily asked and Miss Bradlegrace's eyes filled with tears, before she started crying. "Oh dear, would you care for some comfort?" She asked and Miss Bradlegrace nodded, Lily wrapped her arms around Miss Bradlegrace, hugging her as she cried. "Perhaps we might sit down?" Lily asked and sat on one of the couches, running her hands through Miss Bradlegrace's hair.

"He didn't do it, I know he didn't."

"Yes well that's the thing, everything could have been determined easily enough with some veritserum, but alas the legal system within the wizard world is sadly lacking. I think that studying the law is an excellent place to start, we could spend our classes on that if you like." Lily said and Miss Bradlegrace nodded, before she continued crying. Lily's eyes drooped and she fell asleep while holding Miss Bradlegrace, putting up a personal shield as well as one that surrounded the couch in the last moments before sleep claimed her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

She woke the next morning with a crick in her neck and her mouth full of golden blond curls. Miss Bradlegrace was still sound asleep, it seemed to be quite early indeed. Another young woman was curled against Miss Bradlegrace, her skirts rode up indecently, and a simple spell straitened and smoothed them out without disturbing the girl. Lily was pleased to discover that she was at seventy five percent of her normal power and redistributed it, taking some from everyone in return, until they were all at equal strength.

"Good morning." Someone said and Lily yawned and smiled at the young man who passed her, heading towards the shelves.

"Good Morning Mr. Branson, your up early." She said and Mr. Branson smiled.

"I come to the library as soon as it opens, though admittedly I'd never have been quite so glad to be a bibliophile." Mr. Branson said and Lily sighed.

"Young boys, I do hope you were respectful of young Miss Valencia's dignity, the girl wears her skirts entirely too short." Lily said and Mr. Branson blushed. "Then again I did the same when I was in school, the uniforms are meant to attract the eye, but they are a bit unseemly. I always thought three inches, below or above the knee was a bit indecent, it should be six instead as it was a hundred years ago." Lily said and shrugged. "Yet you can't tell a teenager that they are dressing inappropriately, not with dramatic eye rolls." She said and laughed. "I had my skirt a good inch above regulation and no one ever caught me, it felt daring and I always wore cloth shorts underneath." Mr. Branson blushed and Lily smiled. "Now that I am older, I prefer to wear long skirts, partly because I like the way they look and partly because they are warm and I too like to read and often fall asleep while doing so." She said and laughed. "Its so very easy to make young wizards uncomfortable, it is not as though you did anything unforgivable, you simply came into read when the library opened. It is not your fault that Miss Valencia likes to keep her skirts right at regulation height. Though I might suggest being a bit more proper in future."

"You are correct Professor Potter, I had heard that you and Miss Bradlegrace had fallen asleep in the library and I should have gone to another part of the library."

"Indeed, you should have, but I don't blame you for doing what most young wizards did when I was in school." Lily said and laughed. "I actually believe I knew a Branson when I was in school, he was in seventh year, when I was in first, but he was kind to me at a time when I had few friends."

"That was my Uncle, my Father is a few years older than that." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.

"How is your Uncle?"

"He was one of the ones lost in the war, but I am glad that you remember him favorably. I never got to meet him, I would love to hear some stories." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.

"Well I might be here till breakfast, I actually met your Uncle in the Library, I was attempting to read about wizard history and he was doing a research paper on the Dark Lord Sinister."

"Sinister? Wasn't that in the eighteen hundreds?"

"Well it would be like you doing a paper on Grindlwald, I'm fairly certain that he wished to replace one of his poor test scores."

"You can do that?" Mr. Branson demanded and Lily nodded.

"Of course, if it's good enough, if its trash Professor Bins will rip it to pieces." Lily said and laughed. "He was actually a supporter of Sinister, although he was too old to fully support him if you know what I mean."

"Indeed I do, that explains much."

"Well after his Grandson and Granddaughter died when Grindlewald was being fought, he lost his enthusiasm for wizard history and dedicated himself to the goblin wars."

"I had no idea." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.

"He is actually the best history teacher you could ask for, though it takes some convincing to get him off his favorite subject. I got him to talk about sixteenth century wizard society instead, for the last year I was student but I had class with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and most would wind up falling asleep. It was absolutely fascinating."

"You mean he'd might talk about that instead?"

"If you can manage to stay awake through the start of his lecture and do well on your tests, yes, he might at that." Lily said and smiled. "It was very different back then, but similar in some ways as well. It is in fact his favorite period in history. Though there was that nasty business with the goblin wars."

"You mean to say he's talking about sixteenth century wizard society?"

"No he's talking about the goblin wars and about the goblin people, not keen on wizards, Professor Bins." Lily said. "He and Professor Flitwick get on very well."

"Professor Flitwick likes Professor Binns?"

"Of course Professor Flitwick would like Professor Binns, he's part goblin after all and apparently Professor Binns was very kind to him, when Professor Flitwick was a boy, nearly eighty years ago now." Lily said and smiled softly. "I demand respect from my students, but beyond that I hope that I might come to care and guide you as my own teachers guided me. I was so lost as a child, my own sister hated me and so did many of my year mates, for my dirty blood. I had Severus for a time, but even he got caught up in the disease that is the belief of blood purity. Muggles are just as bad, though those that are considered to be inferior are of different skin color, rather than those who cannot trace back their wizard ancestry back to the time of Merlin. Turns out that my line is more ancient than most, but I set very little stock in that. I feel that the measure of a magic user should be taken through their own merits, rather than who their parents are. Yet that's just me and my personal beliefs, you can believe whatever you wish, as long as you allow others to live their lives and believe what they do."

"It seems like a very wise approach for someone who knows so many spells and can hold up two incredibly powerful shields all night, after being magically exhausted."

"Oh the shields are just feeding off the magical energy of the castle, Hogwarts was built on top of a series of ley lines and so its much easier to cast spells here than it is elsewhere. I just simply set it up and the magic in the castle did the rest."

"How do you do that?"

"Its fairly simple, once you know how to power share and feel the energy around you, you can easily enough take energy from different sources, if I wished I could even take it from you, or give it to someone else."

"You can do that?"

"As long as someone has a magical core, yes I can." Lily said and sighed. "Though its much harder when they aren't people in my coven."

"What does it mean to be part of a coven?"

"Your coven are those that you share a magical core with, the power flows between you, as it flows between ley lines. Though actually tapping into that power is another matter entirely. I'm going to teach my coven how to do it, but I will always be the primary source, because I started conducting the flow first."

"How does that work?"

"In ancient times the one that directed the power, the primary source was someone who the others all agreed was trustworthy. With my coven that's not the case, because I stepped in because I had to. It was a very steep learning curve, but no one has died from a working, since Luna's mother, though I've had to slam magic into people several times."

"You slam magic into them?"

"When I feel their working is unstable, I stabilize it, through giving more of the power that they need. Our magical reserves were always very strong, but now I think I'm at mage level and they are only slightly behind me."

"Mage level magic, but there hasn't been a mage in..."

"Five hundred years." Lily said and shrugged. "I looked through Blackfoot's almanac and I was able to do every spell."

"You can do those spells, as a cat?"

"Well I can do any spell I wish, but certain workings can lead to magical exhaustion." Lily replied and shrugged. "No one is infallible or invincible."

"How is that possible?"

"How is anything possible, I've yet to come across a book that states where magic comes from inequitably." Lily replied and shrugged. "It is because it is, some things don't need to be explained Mr. Branson, some things simply are. Like the sun and the rain and the stars. Your Uncle took me out at night and pointed out the stars to me, telling me stories about the constellations and famous wizards and witches. He wanted to be an Unspeakable and discover the deeper mysteries of this world. If he had lived, perhaps we would know so much more now than we do. How did he die?"

"Wrong place, wrong time, he was going to Borgin and Burks for a tome that was going on sale, of course that was when the Aurors had a crack down on Knockturn Alley, he was hit with a stray spell."

"My spells always find their target, there's a simple thing to remember when firing spells." Lily said and smiled at Branson. "There's the spell itself and the wand movements necessary, but really that's just an intention, then there is the aiming, you can either do that with your mind, or your wand. Then there is the desire to have your spell work according to your will. Its MAD, movement, accuracy or aiming and desire, if you remember that it will serve you well and you won't wind up hitting the wrong person."

"MAD you say?" Branson said and Lily grinned.

"I think all magic users are at least al

"Mage level magic, but there hasn't been a mage in..."

"Five hundred years." Lily said and shrugged. "I looked through Blackfoot's almanac and I was able to do every spell."

"You can do those spells, as a cat?"

"Well I can do any spell I wish, but certain workings can lead to magical exhaustion." Lily replied and shrugged. "No one is infallible or invincible."

"How is that possible?"

"How is anything possible, I've yet to come across a book that states where magic comes from inequitably." Lily replied and shrugged. "It is because it is, some things don't need to be explained Mr. Branson, some things simply are. Like the sun and the rain and the stars. Your Uncle took me out at night and pointed out the stars to me, telling me stories about the constellations and famous wizards and witches. He wanted to be an Unspeakable and discover the deeper mysteries of this world. If he had lived, perhaps we would know so much more now than we do. How did he die?"

"Wrong place, wrong time, he was going to Borgin and Burks for a tome that was going on sale, of course that was when the Aurors had a crack down on Knockturn Alley, he was hit with a stray spell."

"My spells always find their target, there's a simple thing to remember when firing spells." Lily said and smiled at Branson. "There's the spell itself and the wand movements necessary, but really that's just an intention, then there is the aiming, you can either do that with your mind, or your wand. Then there is the desire to have your spell work according to your will. Its MAD, movement, accuracy or aiming and desire, if you remember that it will serve you well and you won't wind up hitting the wrong person."

"MAD you say?" Branson said and Lily grinned.

"I think all magic users are slightly mad at least." Lily said and grinned at him. "It sort of comes with the territory, having such power and having the discipline to control it, to channel it and to not take too much from others. To share your power with people, even if you don't agree with them, well these are all things that most magic users have trouble with. There are others in my coven, who aren't human and I sense their energies, they feel different than mine."

"How so?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but if I fully open myself, without any of my shields, I can only do it for about ten minutes or so, before I start to feel myself slipping into becoming something else. Something other than who I am and so I don't do that very often. There are tales of wizards turning into goblins and centaurs, those who aligned themselves so closely with things not of their species that they became them."

"Is that possible?"

"Anything you imagine is possible, I personally choose to remain as I am, but yes I do believe that its possible and there's some truth to the old tales." She said and sighed. "I don't understand half of what I feel and the only books on the subject are ancient and unreliable at best. That's why I like to go to the oldest parts of the libraries I visit. Can't you feel the age of these books?"

"You mean this is one of the oldest parts of the library?" Branson asked.

"Oh there are older parts, but this is my favorite time period, the fourteenth century, very good time for magic and very good place to start if you want to do a bit of magical research."

"Really the fourteenth century, wouldn't you choose earlier?"

"No, because the earlier stuff isn't the sort of things children should be reading and I knew I might be followed." Lily said and shrugged. "The Parkinson's had a vast library, but theirs dates back to the fifteenth century and the founder of their line Augustus Parkinson." Lily said and Branson's eyes widened. "The Bransons have been wizards since the sixteenth century I believe?"

"That is accurate, that was when my muggleborn ancestor was born."

"Muggleborn or the child of a Squib?" Lily returned. "Seems like its pretty much the same thing."

"How do you think Squibs are created then?"

"Wizards drain power, as well as conducting it, do that for enough generations, without knowing how to properly maintain the balance and you wind up with some unfortunate results. It would help if you didn't marry your cousins, but who am I to say how you decide to have a family?"

"I think you might have a good point there, but I'm not related to Miss Bradlegrace."

"Well then I think whatever children you may have, if you were both receptive would be very strong indeed. You are both average for your age, when it comes to terms of power and so could easily enough align. However you could also just as easily join with someone outside your coven and create a triad and that would make both covens stronger, it was a common practice many years ago." Lily said and smiled. "I'm going to go and eat breakfast now, happy reading." She said and walked to the Great Hall, taking her seat at the table and piling her plate high with food, before devouring it.

"Good morning Mrs. Potter, its good to see you up and around." Professor Flitwick said and Lily smiled.

"Salutations whelp minder Flitwick, I return your greeting with one of my own. How are you today?"

"You know the language of my people?"

"Yes I know the goblin tongue, I had a lot of time on my hands, I know how the words should sound, but no doubt my accent is bad, being unable to speak it. Luckily the old head of Parkinson house was rather fond of taking her cat everywhere and allowed me to escape the basket, if she was at the bank for long and she was at the bank for a very long time, towards the end of her life. I learned entirely too much about that whole family's affairs." She said and Flitwick laughed.

"Yes well I didn't become a banker for a reason. I'm perfectly content with the amount of gold I have and do not need to acquire more than my salary."

"Which is wise, I too do not need to worry about money, but there are other concerns that keep me up at night." Lily said and continued eating, smiling when he saw Severus and Madam Pomphrey walk in. "Good Morning, it is a pleasant day, I think I shall go for a walk after breakfast, my first class is at eleven correct?"

"Yes you are teaching the basic etiquette class at eleven today." Headmistress McGonagall said. "Do you feel you will be ready to teach it, if you need a few more days to rest..."

"I am fine thank you Mrs. McGonagall, it's only a two hour class and it won't require the use of magic. I think we might start with table manners."

"That sounds like a fine place to start, you eat very well, considering how much your eating. Would you mind taking over my lessons, until I can find a teacher to fill my position?"

"It would be no imposition, there's one at one o'clock and another at three, if I remember your schedule correctly."

"Indeed you are correct, are you certain you wish to take on all four houses at once?"

"It will be a test of my patience and their ability to sit through my classes, I'm not going to waste my time on students that don't wish to learn." Lily stated flately. "Particularly if its me they object to, not in fact knowing me, but knowing of my history."

"Which is understandable considering what you have been through, what we all have been through." Severus said and Lily nodded.

"Thank you Sev, perhaps there is some of the boy I once knew, buried under the man you have become. I hope I can again recognize my childhood friend in you." Lily said and looked straight ahead, continuing to eat, refusing to let her eyes water. "War changes everyone and not for the better and we are all children of war."

"You are very wise."

"Well I lived among my enemies for many years and found that they were not so different than me." Lily said and shrugged. "Others don't get such oppertunities as I do, we all pretty much want the same thing, safety and security and we all defend ourselves when we feel threatened. However I feel some things never can be justified, some actions are unforgivable, for instance the killing of family, because they do not share your political views. That I feel is unforgivable."

"Who are you talking about, when you say that? James?" Severus asked.

"My husband was not killed by a member of his family, not a direct member of his family anyway, no it wasn't James I was speaking of, someone else entirely." Lily said and sighed. "I was speaking of Dumbledore, who killed his own sister, or perhaps it was Grindlewald who killed her, I'm not entirely sure on the details of that, but neither were they."

"Dumbledore killed his own sister?" Severus demanded

"Well no one knows if it was Dumbledore or Grindlewald, but when your fighting around someone who has the mental capacity of an eight year old at sixteen and hurling deadly curses, it doesn't truly matter from who's wand the curse was thrown." Lily said and sighed. "Then there's also Bellatrix Lestrange, who caused Alice and Frank Longbottom to go insane, I do believe that they were second cousins, but apparently not close enough of a relation to matter." She continued to eat finishing off the plate. "I don't want to put anyone off their food, but certain things must be discussed, if anything is ever going to change."

"Understanable, I know you Lily, or I knew you, I don't know who you've become." Severus said and Lily smiled.

"I don't know who you've become either Sev, I like to think I'm the same girl who loved to run through large fields of grass picking herbs along the way." She said and smiled. "Then your Mother would bake us pie and we'd have herbal tea."

"That was my favorite part of my childhood, but I remember the nights I'd sleep on your little bench just inside your window." Severus said and Lily smiled.

"I always kept my window open, until I was twenty and had to go into hiding." Lily said. "Then open windows were a luxury that I could not afford, but if you wish to talk, I am always willing to listen at least. You are my oldest friend after all and I think you'll find that we share more in common now, than we did at fifteen. I was such a rebellious and tempermental young teenager." She said and laughed.

"I was little better, I am sorry for what I said that day, if I could take it back I would. I would do so many things differently."

"Ah like your regrettable choice of tattoos?" Lily asked and Severus laughed.

"Indeed, that's something I wish I could remove."

"Well I wouldn't be too hasty, its simple enough to rework the energy that runs through it, I could do it if you liked."

"You mean you can remove my dark mark?"

"I don't think I could remove it, but I could change it." Lily said and took Severus' wrist, examining the Dark Mark. "Ah I see what he did, no wonder we're so strong, lets see now..." She started to chant in latin, spilling a few drops of her blood over the tatoo and it changed to a lily and a poppy.

"Poppies? Why poppies?"

"Because poppy flowers remind me of you, dangerous and beautiful." Lily said and smiled. "The lilies well that should be obvious, it is sort of my name." She said and Severus laughed.

"Its particularly feminine, but I like it."

"Well I think you could add some ink that's non magical if you chose to do so." Lily said and he grinned.

"Perhaps a sword?"

"Or a wand, or even the symbol for the Deathly Hallows, you were always fond of that story. I think James actually had the cloak and I took it from Harry, thirteen year olds have no buisness having invisability cloaks." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Well that explains a lot." He said and Lily nodded.

"It does have a different energy than anything I've ever looked at before, the legends may in fact be true. After all Dementors exist, why not the Grim Reaper?" Lily asked.

"Don't forget the Grim hounds."

"Or perhaps they were hounds of hell?" Lily asked and Severus laughed.

"I'm not feeling well enough to handle a second year potions class, perhaps you could extend your lesson?"

"Well I've always been one for cooking, we could make some tasty and nutrisious tea and that wouldn't require magic." Lily said and Severus grinned.

"I'd like that, I think it would be best to wait another day, before I draw upon my core, it still doesn't feel quite right."

"Well of course it doesn't, I'm only at about fifty percent of my normal power and your at around seventy five percent of yours."

"How is that possible?"

"Different core strength, I've had to become very strong magically over a short period of time." Lily replied and shrugged. "I feel rather out of sort myself, I was sparking last night and I never spark normally, I had to drain some excess power off.

"I see you used a shield didn't you?"

"Yes well when the whole Slytherin Dorm starts demanding you answer their questions, its a bit unsettling." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Try living there, I suppose I may have reacted the same way, if a host of Gryffindors started badgering me."

"Come now leave the Hufflepuffs out of this." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Oh I assure you they are out of it, I do believe Madam Hooch is constantly discovering contraband and Marajuana."

"Come to think of it, the first time I had pot was in seventh year and it was a Hufflepuff student James bought it off of." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"I'm surprised at you Mrs. Potter, smoking pot, how uncivilized."

"Well we did grow up in the sixties, I wanted to try it. I actually liked it and when I needed to calm down, I'd buy some and mix it and make a tincture, before mixing it with a calming draught."

"How did that work out for you?"

"Well it worked out very well, you just needed to get the dose right, or else you'd wind up falling asleep." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Yes I would imagine that would happen, considering the properties of pot tincture and the properties of a calming draught. It seems like something I should try at some point."

"Of course you need to listen to to the Wireless or have someone read old fairy tales, that was fun, I wish we had time for more fun nights like that one, but unfortunately there were few fun times to be had."

"Well we had interesting parties, rather nausiating affairs, peer pressure is a thing that should be watched out for." Severus said and Lily frowned.

"Ah yes, I do believe your friends were fond of torturing muggles and calling me nasty names, if not hexing me in the halls. I would imagine that such parties would be interesting, particularly the guests of honor, did they wind up in the woods?"

"No I do believe those guests were burned, it was something I thought was right, but I was wrong." Severus said. "I just wanted so badly to belong somewhere."

"We both did Sev, two kids from Spinsters End, I wish you would have seen that you belonged with me, instead of with them." Lily said and sniffed, dabbing at her eyes. "Well that was so long ago now, it hardly matters."

"But it does matter Lily." Severus said and took her hand. "You matter."

"Oh Sev." Lily said and burst into tears, Severus wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried. She sobbed and she heard him crying as well, she knew she was making a scene but she didn't care, because she'd just learned that Brandon Branson had not survived the war and Brandon had been one of the few people who had been kind to her, in first year.

She managed to pull herself together, took out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes, but Severus was still crying and holding her and she felt like he didn't want her to get up. Instead she wrapped her arms around him holding him, as he held her. She then sang an old song she'd read in a book somewhere. "Give thanks to the mother moon, give thanks to the father son, give thanks to the earth which they shine down upon as one. Give thanks to the magic, that flows through us all, give thanks to the wind and the sound of a birds call. Give thanks to all the creatures, both magical and mundane, the wild things that grow, in our hearts we know we are all the same under Mother moon and Father sun, we are all one."

"Sing another Lily." Severus said and Lily smiled.

"Well a wizard song, or a muggle song?" Lily asked.

"Just sing."

"Alright I know another good one, Where are you going child, where do you run, over hill and valley, through the rain, snow and sun. Where are you growing child, growing fast and strong, soon I will wonder where my little child went, I will wonder where they might belong. Sweet little child, running over hill and stream, sweet little child, if you listen, you will hear me in your dreams. Sleep now sweet child, know that you are loved, rest now sweet child and know that the wild will always call to you. Drink the dew from the leaves of the trees, dance in meadows and in fields. Grow and learn to be be better than those who came before, grow to learn to know when to fight and choose your battles wisely. Then my sweet child, your children might live in peace, with all creatures of this world, humans and magical beasts. For we are all wild things, this you surely know, embrace your wild nature and do not change too much as you grow."

"Another." Severus said and sniffed.

"If I sing another, we won't have class at all, we can't scithe off school like when we were kids Sev, we're the teachers now, not the students." Lily said and Severus gave a watery laugh.

"You would always give me a tongue lashing when you found me at the park." Severus said and laughed again. "Then you would sit with me and pull out your textbook and say, 'well Sev if you aren't going to go to muggle primary school today, we 're going to have our lessons right here.' Such a bookworm."

"You were equally bad, you'd always have your nose in some book your mother bought me, getting ink on them and smudging the pages." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Well I do have a rather large nose and it took a while for me to learn to keep it clean of ink." Severus said and Lily laughed.

"Well considering my pants and dresses were always being torn on branches and ruined by mud and all manner of mysterious stains, I do believe ink was the least of our problems, when it came to our clothing and books." Lily said and Severus laughed as well.

"Your Mum would give us a hundred pounds and we'd go down to the second hand shop and get school clothes for the year." Severus said.

"Did your Grandparents ever aknowledge you?" Lily asked and Severus shook his head.

"Their estate went to some cousin or other."

"Wizards." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"Half bloods, we're the best of the lot."

"Or the worst, my half blood Prince." Lily said and Severus laughed again.

"I was such a haughty young man." Severus said. "I had forgotten about that."

"Wasn't I something equally ridiculous, I think I choose Lilyflower, like that's not obvious, or maybe that's what everyone started calling me, I'm not sure. I know you were the first and how it angered me when James used that nickname." Lily said and laughed.

"Well it fit you then, I'm not sure what would fit you now."

"I like Lily Flower just fine, among my friends, Mrs. Potter should suffice otherwise." Lily said and Severus smiled. "Or you could call me Precious Prissy Patricia's Prancing Particularly Prettily, that's what Old Miss Parkinson called me."

"Merlin that's a mouthful."

"Mostly it was here kitty, or they'd pick one of my names and I could dein to respond or not." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"I would have liked to see that."

"Oh I do believe I did scratch some little fingers that touched my fur wrong and pulled at it." Lily said. "Though they soon learned to pet me properly."

"You werent that beast." Marcus Flint said and Lily grinned.

"Oh but I was Marcus, I do think you learned how to approach an animal properly at least." She said and several of the Slytherins laughed. "I would suggest getting with someone a fair bit more intelligent and a few degrees removed from your family line."

"A good suggestion, the words swim oddly when I try to read."

"How do they swim?" Hermoine asked. "Because there are certain muggle ailements, though muggles call them disabilties."

"You mean to say its not just my personal affliction?" Marcus asked.

"Not at all, its actually fairly common in the muggle world." Hermoine said. "There should be a spell somewhere that should be able to help."

"Spells that deal with sight and perception of sight are not to be trifled with lightly, you could cause more harm to your vision attempting to fix it." Lily said and frowned. "There's some spells I know, but you should consult with a healer, why didn't you tell someone about this before?"

"Because I didn't know." Marcus burst into tears and Lily leapt out of Severus' arms and went over to Marcus.

"Well someone is rarely just stupid Marcus, there's often some underlying reason for it. Sometimes that is in fact intermarrying with magical creatures, who are considered to be less intelligent, sometimes its just ill luck." Lily said. "If you like I could run several diagnostic spells, but I never recieved my liscence, nor swore the healers oath."

"Will it be painful and can you reverse it?"

"It may be painful, but I should be able to reverse it." Lily replied and cast a series of spell, Flint cried out. "I'm sorry but you need to remain concious for this, hold my class book and try to read it, now what does the first line say?"

"In com...com... I can't read this." Flint protested.

"Right sound out the words, are they moving about on the page?"

"A little bit, but its not as bad." Flint said and tears sprung to his eyes.

"If you cry, I might mess this up and have to undo and recast several spells." Lily said and Flint wiped at his eyes, Lily worked through several spells fine tuning the spellwork, until Flint read a paragraph and burst into tears. Lily put a hand on his shoulder gently. "Tell me if anything changes, sometimes combining curses and healing spells can be unperdictable, but the spells I was using only effect vision and the mind's perception of it."

"I don't think you'll be able to get him to listen at the moment, thank you Mrs. Potter." Mrs. Parkinson said and Lily smiled fondly.

"Of course, Flint and I always got on alright, why should it be any different in human form."

"You used to sleep on my bed." Pansy said. "Why?"

"Because you were Harry's age and I missed my son." Lily replied. "Best house I ever lived in."

"Then why did you keep trying to run?" Pansy asked

"Wouldn't you? If you were trapped in the form of a cat, forced to be away from your family?" Lily returned and several children started crying. "At least I'm alive others weren't so lucky." She sat down, wrapping an arm around Marcus. "I knew a boy once, his name was Brandon and he was in seventh year, when I was in first. I was lucky, I had Sev and I knew something of this world, but not enough, not like a pureblood child knows it. Everyone was very mean to me, because of my blood, or my brains, or my ambition, but Brandon was kind. He would give me books to read and show me the stars, telling me stories and legends many of which were actually historically accurate. He encouraged my curiosity, he helped me to feel safe, when the world felt very unsafe to me. Most of all he was my friend, despite the years between us and I loved him like a brother. After he graduated, I wrote all the time and he wrote back when he could, telling me about what he was researching, sharing with me what he was learning and told him about what I was studying, how my classes were going and how I was being treated by the other students. He told me to check certain books out of the libary so people would stop cursing me in the halls, because sometimes the only way to get people to stop is to know more creative curses than they know. Or at least it was back then, every one of us knew that at seventeen we would either have to pick a side, or move out of Britan for at least a time, it was not a good time to recieve your education." Lily said and sighed. "Then after fifth year I lost touch with him, I wrote occasionally, when I could spare the time, as did he, but our letters were few and far between. Then I didn't hear back from him one day, a year after I graduated, I thought he must have been busy and I thought there would be time to catch up with my old friend, but I was wrong. I had to go into hiding soon after that and I just learned that he didn't survive the war, I believe he must have died in 1977."

"Brandon, what was his surname?" Pansy asked.

"He was a pureblood, not that it matters, he died, because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, going to wrong bookstore." Lily replied. "Never mind that he was a researcher and an unspeakable."

"He was an Unspeakable?" Branson asked.

"Didn't you know? He wanted me to join up, but I wanted to be a healer, then the fates chose the role of Mother to the Chosen One for me and all I wanted, all I still want is to protect myself and my son, as well as my family and those I consider to be family. If you threaten any of them, you threaten me and I want to make that very clear right now."

"That's understandable." Miss Bradlegrace said and Lily nodded her head.

"May I access your core Marcus?"

"My core, why?" Flint asked.

"Because the problem could be in part do to how your sharing power, sometimes the balence becomes unequal, if not shored up properly." Lily replied and Flint nodded, she put a hand to his forehead and had him chant the spell along with her, she shoved magic into him and several people gasped across the hall. "Before I redistrubute it, do come over here, its your cores I'm tinkering with as well." Lily said and started working, she pulled and pushed taking some power into herself, releasing other power into them through Marcus, until their magic seemed healthy. "You seem to be taking too much, it could prove to be dangerous Miss Bones."

"What do you mean, I'm taking too much?"

"Your taking too much from the others, that's why Marcus and I believe Mr. O'Donal aren't doing as well, because your taking their magic in order to shore up their own. Whatever your doing, you need to stop doing it, because your core cannot support such spells at the moment."

"What do you mean?" Miss Bones repeated and Lily sighed.

"Its all about forms of magic and your elements, Marcus and Mr. O'Donal are connected to the Earth, most of you are purebloods so you should know something of the anchient rights. If your lacking an element or a form of magic, or have too much of one source, you fall out of balence. For example Marcus should be casting more light spells and Mr. O'Donal should be casting more dark ones, naturally they are supposed to be grey wizards, but they aren't at the moment. You are the white witch for this coven and she's the dark one, that's just your magical inclination though. Would it be alright if I redistrubute your power and then lock it into place, so you get a feel for what I'm talking about. I'm afraid you'll have to set aside the more powerful workings for now Miss Bones."

"But..."

"What you are doing, if its causing this much disturbance is harming the balence, I'm picking on you because if I round on Miss Parkinson there will be hell to pay and your the safer target." Lily said and Miss Bones nodded. "If you don't listen to me, something bad could happen and you could loose a member of your coven. You shouldn't be preforming large working before your ready, I know you think your all grown up now that your in third year, but you aren't."

"That's why I always had horrible luck with my power, because all my coven are younger than me?" Marcus asked.

"Well these are just the ones brave enough to come over, there's still a couple in this room that didn't want to step forward and they should be careful as well." Lily said and shrugged. "Well you know where they are, if you change your mind, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, never were much for courage, but these people are in your coven, hurting them would be hurting yourself and vice versa." Lily said. "In fact its impossible to do harm to someone in your coven, its a way magic has of protecting those who deserve Darwin awards." Someone laughed so hard they choked on their food and Lily smiled. "You do know your supposed to eat it, not drink it Mr. Flannary."

"Yes Professor Potter."

"Good lad, now I'm going to redistrubute the power now, if you don't want this to happen and your in this coven, you better speak up." Lily said and waited a moment, before she started in, working the power so everyone had an equal amount before locking it down. "Now you will only have access to your own power, I'd suggest keeping it below a hundred spells in a day and avoid anything more complicated than Bernard's ward of sleep."

"What in the name of Merlin is that?"

"Oh its a fairly simple ward. I do assume that's what one of you is after, because nothing else would drain your core like this, not even spell casting. If I knew what you were trying to do, I could give you a better spell for it, so you stop endangering yourself and your coven. I'd suggest you read some books on warding, that's a fine place to start, for someone that's interested in such things. As for the ward of sleep, well it simply causes whoever crosses the set ward to fall asleep and wake up when the castor cancels the ward."

"But that's dark magic." Bones said and Lily shook her head.

"Grey magic, if it was a spell that caused someone to die, if they crossed the ward with ill intent, that would be dark magic." Lily said and everyone blanched and paled.

"You...you can do that?"

"Just because I can do something, doesn't mean I will Miss Parkinson." Lily said and smiled. "However I am very dangerous, luckily I can beat the imperious curse, so don't even try it, you won't like the results. The imperius curse is actually one of the tamer spells, but because it controls someone elses actions and makes them do things, they would not normally it is considered to be unforgivable. I know grey spells and dark spells, as well as light spells and there are certain spells that I wouldn't cast unless my life was in danger." As for Bernard's ward, well that's fairly simple." Lily cast silently and Marcus nearly dropped like a stone, snoring. She caught him however and set his head gently down on the table. "He needed to sleep anyway and I don't feel like arguing with him about it. I'll cancel the spell in a couple of hours."

"Why did you do that?" Pansy demanded.

"Because I know Marcus Flint and he'd argue with me about it throughout the rest of breakfast, until he passed out into his oatmeal Miss Parkinson." Lily said and several of the Slytherins laughed.

"You do know Marcus, not very gifted with books, but Merlin he's stubborn." Pucey said and Lily laughed.

"I would imagine your on the team with him, your in fourth year right?" Lily asked.

"Yes Professor Potter, I am, I'm in your second class out of the seven."

"Well you can always test out, once you prove yourself to be worthy of being in one of the higher level classes." Lily stated. "There were certain things that I felt you needed to consider, before I moved you to a higher class."

"Yet you moved Granger to the third class." Pucey said.

"I did, because she has a strong sense of ethics, as well as knowing the basics of wizard ettiocat and what she doesn't know, she'll catch up on soon enough. I was her cat as well and she's even more intelligent than me, if only what you could offer the world was valued above who your ancestors were, but that is not the world we live in. Kindly do not question me about Miss Granger again Mr. Pucey. Or else I shall have to remove points and if this is how you see fit to interact with me, I may take you out of my classes entirely. If you cannot be civil and treat your teacher with respect, well I highly doubt you will do at all well on the tests."

"There will be tests?"

"There are always tests in life, as well as in school, if I deem your preformace suiting of a gentleman of good breeding and a strong sense of empathy, you will move up in the classes I teach. If I find your preformance to be unsatifactory, you may well be taking classes with the first years, like Marcus." Lily said and smiled. "Though I do believe he'll be in your class soon at least, he has had the basics after all." She said and smiled fondly at Marcus. "What of the rest of you, do you feel over tired?"

"No Professor Potter, we're fine." Pansy said and Lily smiled.

"That's good to hear, usually the first working is at least a bit tiring. I wanted to make sure that Marcus didn't push himself at least, if you need a lie down later today, I'm sure your teachers will be understanding." Lily said and smiled. "Then there's always Professor Binn's class, I was one of the few that managed to stay up through them, when I was in school."

"How on earth did you manage that?" Miss Bones asked and Lily smiled.

"Sheer determination and stubborness." Lily said and Severus laughed.

"That and stimulant potions." He called from the high table.

"Oh hush you." Lily said and he laughed again.

"Do you know Professor Snape?" Parkinson asked.

"Well we've known each other since we were eight, he was my first love and my first heartbreak, it seems so silly now. He called me Mudblood and I refused to speak to him. I believe he decided to join the Dark Lord at seventeen, hungry to prove himself and find a place he belonged. Luckily he survived, but others weren't so lucky. He's a halfblood, you should watch out for halfbloods, just enough respectability to be noticed by the Purebloods, but they still slum it with the muggleborns. I would have liked to have been born a halfblood, seems like they have the most fun." Lily said and smiled. "Well my son is a halfblood, so he gets called other nasty names than I was called at least." Lily said.

"You seem very bitter."

"Well I did miss thirteen years of my son's life Miss Parkinson, when you have a child, you'll understand." Lily said. "Not only that but he was raised by my wizard hating sister and I doubt they treated him very well at all. They too are blood purists, I didn't associate with them, once I got out of school for a reason and I doubt that I shall attempt to reconnect now."

"Muggle blood puriests?" Parkinson asked.

"Oh they hate all wizards and everything magical, I suppose I cast one two many spells the summer I turned seventeen, but she was impossible even before that." Lily said and sighed. "We never got on, too different. One magical the other muggle, our parents were at their wits end, if it wasn't me flying the broom at odd hours, it was Petunia sneaking out to be with her boyfriend. Course because Sev spent the night, she demanded that she be allowed to have male friends over as well."

"Who's Sev?" Parkinson asked.

"I thank you not to use that nickname Miss Parkinson, to you I am Professor Snape."

"That answers your question nicely don't it?" Lily asked letting a bit of her accent slip through and several people stared at her in surprise.

"Your a Northerner?" Finnigan asked.

"Or a southerner, depending upon your point of view, I grew up very close to Scotland, my Grandfather was Scottish on my Father's side and my Grandmother on my mother's side was Irish. My two other Grandparents were both English, but Northern English, as apposed to Southern. My Grandmother always used to sit me on my knee and tell me wonderful stories, of a far off land and how one of our ancestors had been abducted by faires and perhaps I was one of the fey folk in disguise. For I was a wild and strange child to be sure and wild and strange things happened around me. Course they didn't know I was a witch, they thought I was a veela or some such nonsense." Lily said and a lot of the children laughed.

"Really your family told stories about the fey folk and faries, My Da used to tell the same sorts of stories."

"Well Mr. Finnigan, seems as though there's a strange paralell between the seelie and unseelie court and dark and light wizards to be sure." Lily said. "Such statutes must be followed strictly, but what if someone finds themselves betwixed and between, a witch born to muggle parents? Or a wizard for that matter, such stories were very comforting to me, when I was making my toys fly round the room and no Ministry employee was coming to my house to assure my parents that everything was alright, they just had been blessed with a little witch, instead of the muggle daughter they were expecting." Lily said. "I was very lucky to have met Severus."

"I was the lucky one Lily, I might not have survived my childhood, had I not met you. Uncaring Grandparents and a cruel father, I was a bit betwixed and between myself."

"Well we always fit in two worlds, haven't we Sev?" Lily asked.

"I thought it was always you that I fit the most with." Severus said and Lily blushed.

"Severus now is not the time."

"If not now, then when Lily, we're thirty four, how long would you have me wait."

"I'd like to get settled first and there's Harry to think of."

"I want you to be happy Mum and if being with Snape will make you happy, I say go for it." Harry said and Lily smiled.

"My dear boy, the thing is that I'm not sure anything could make me truly happy at the moment, but maybe that's simply how I'm feeling today." She took out a bottle from one of the pouches on her belt.

"What are you drinking Lily? It must be strong to make you grimace so."

"You know I'm not sure, I think that was whiskey, I need to organize these better." Lily said and took out another bottle from her belt sniffed and drank it. "Well that will teach me not to use a spell that brings forth what you most desire instead of what you most need, I was expecting a calming draught and got whiskey instead, I suppose I was thinking of my Grandpa."

"What kind of whiskey did he drink?"

"Oh he'd only drink whiskey that came from Oban, which is where he was from." Lily said and laughed. "I remember visiting him and running through the scottish country side my skirts pulled up so I could collect all the flowers and bring them back to him, he'd tell me their names and then we'd place them in a vase together for Grandma." She said and finished off the bottle.

"I suggest you stop drinking now, if that was a calming draught." Severus said and Lily grinned,

"Perhaps your right, I think I'll switch to pumkin juice, she poured some into both flasks and stoppered one, sipping from the other. "This is lovely, just the right balence, your right Sev, I shouldn't drink more than that, don't want to wind up passing out after all." Lily said and smiled. "That would be disgraceful and unfitting a lady of my station, if not my breeding." She said and several of the girls giggled, before Lily took out a fan and started fanning herself, flicking it just so, which made the girls burst into laughter."

"What's so funny?"

"Oh don't pay us ladies any mind Mr. Pucey." Lily said and started signing fan signs, soon half the girls in the hall were laughing, the other half looked confused and the boys were gaping at them and looking between them and Lily. Lily couldn't help but allow a small giggle to escape, which she covered with her fan, before taking another sip of pumkin juice. She started fan signing again shortly after and soon everyone was laughing and several more girls snapped out their fans and started signing as well, to each other and across the hall. Lily smiled, sat back and sipped her pumkin juice for the next thirty minutes. "Well if you wish to be punctual to your classes, you must leave now." Lily said and closed up her fan, before canceling the spell and gently shaking Marcus' shoulder, when he didn't wake up she shook harder, until he groaned softly. "Mr. Flint, if you wish to sleep, I suggest you do it in your own bed, or in the hospital wing."

"Wha?" He asked and Lily repeated herself. "Yes 'ofessor 'otter." He got to his feet.

"Could someone help Mr. Flint down to the dungeons, he seems a bit out of it." Lily said.

"We will Professor Potter, I think we're strong enough, to handle it if he knocks into us on accsident." Gregory Goyle offered.

"Are you certain, he's a good half foot taller than you."

"Yes Professor but we're strong." Goyle said and Lily nodded.

"Alright then, if your sure."

"We are." Goyle said. "We can take him down to the dungeons."

"Alright thank you Mr Goyle, do you wish to go too Mr. Crabbe?"

"Yes Professor Potter, could you help me as well Professor Potter."

"Well why don't I go with you, Severus you can teach them how to make lavender mint tea, I'll only be a moment."

"A moment in Lily time is an eon for everyone else." Severus said and Lily laughed.

"I think you'll find that I'm more punctual now than I was as a child." Lily said. "May these boys be excused from their classes for the day? I think that it was a bit more tiring than I anticipated, but his core seems to be fine."

"Of course Mrs. Potter, thank you for helping the students." Mrs. Macgonnigal said and Lily smiled walking with the three boys casting a few subtile lightening charms on Marcus until they got to the dorms and Marcus flopped down onto his bed in the seventh year dormitory, he was snoring a moment later. Lily built up the fire and pulled a stack of blankets that sat on top of Marcus' trunk off the trunk covering Marcus. She then went the other two boys to their dorm.

Chapter Six

"First lets do a power sharing, I'll start with you Gregory." Lily said and Gregory nodded, she opened the connection, redirected the power to flow more smoothly and then locked down the connection. "Try casting a simple spell, one you know by heart."

"Agentimi." Gregory said and water sprang in a flood from his wand, he stared at his wand and got hit full force with the spell, both Lily and Vincent laughed.

"You need to depend on more than just your muscels Gregory, think with your head a bit more. I know some people are told to solve things through strength alone, but I think that if you set your mind to it, you could be just as capable as everyone else, do you also have trouble reading, or is it focusing that you have trouble with, because that would make sense."

"What do you mean?" Gregory asked and Lily smiled softly.

"Your core is jumbled and disorganized, its all over the place, you were drawing power from everyone all at once, then you were simply pulling on your own power, before you drew from some people but not others, even when you don't know how to power share, it shouldn't be so disorganized."

"I do have trouble thinking about what I need to think about." Gregory said and scratched his head. "What were we talking about again?" He asked and Lily smiled softly.

"Well I can teach you a simple focusing spell, it should help somewhat." Lily said. "First however I'll need to see Crabbe's core and see if the problem is magical in nature or not. I can access his through yours, your both part of the same coven."

"We are, like Draco and Theodore?" Gregory asked and Lily nodded.

"Only a different coven, I think I know what the problem is, wizards use the element of earth all the time and as people who are closely attuned to the earth, of course you wouldn't be as sucessful as the others, because they aren't attuned to the earth. Sev got lucky, because he's brillant and we learned together and we're part of the same coven." Lily said. "However somehow its gotten all mixed up with you somehow."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the magical flow is off, I'll redirect it and that should help somewhat." Lily said. "Would you mind sharing power with each other, it may help you both."

"We wouldn't mind, we're good friends, me and Crabbe." Gregory said and Lily smiled.

"I'm good friends with Severus and the Weasleys, I hope to get to know the Lovegoods, Malfoys and Notts better." She said and pushed and pulled on their power, taking some and giving some, until she felt they were better balenced. "Now what about you Vincent."

"I think I'm the same as Gregory, I can read fine, its just focusing on the words."

"That would make sense, you should try working on logic based puzzles, sometimes that helps with focusing and don't get frustrated if you can't solve them at first, or it takes hours to do so." Lily said, before spending the next hour and a half teaching both boys a focusing spell. By then end they were both exhausted and Lily smiled at them gently. "Now I want you to get into bed, no sneaking off either of you."

"Huh."

"Take off the focusing spell you don't need to focus right now." Lily said. "But get into bed first."

"Yes 'offessor." Gregory said and both boys canceled the spells. "Wha we doin'?"

"Nothing child, just rest." Lily said gently undoing the buttons on their robes. "Get out of your robes at least, its not very comfortable to lie on your robe, I should know I did it often enough in senior year."

"Yes Mum." Gregory said half asleep and Vincent laughed.

"She's not your Mum Greg." He said and Lily laughed as well.

"No I'm not, but you boys both need to rest, what we did would be tiring for anyone, do you know how to cast the spell now?"

"Yes mam." Gregory's eyes drifted closed.

"Robes Mr. Goyle and you too Mr. Crabbe."

"Do I have to?" Gregory asked and Lily nodded.

"Yes you do." Lily said and both boys removed their robes tossing them on the ground. Lily smiled softly, stacking the blankets on them, before adding several logs to the fire. "I don't want you getting up for longer than it takes to use the bathroom, if you use your magic, I'll know, remember I have access to your magical cores right now, so if you use a spell I'll know."

"We won't."

"If you do points will be deducted." Lily said. "Rest well boys, come to class when you wake up, if you can manage it."

"Mmm okay." Goyle said and Crabbe started to snore, Goyle too was snoring before Lily left the room and walked to the potions classroom.


End file.
